[Justhere]

Had one nurse when I was an LPN and she the RN, that stated a patient had a RR of 40 during her assessment, I had just taken the patients vitals and the RR was 20. So both of us went down to the room to count. Come to find out patient was a RR of 20, she was counting the inhale as 1 and the exhale as 2, so 20 turned into 40. She wouldn't believe me that she was counting wrong.

[new_grad06]

Honestly,there just isn't enough time in one shift to do everything strictly "by the book", especially in a nursing home setting where you have 30-40 patients at a time-not to mention that most are stable anyway. I voted for,
"based on medication or diagnosis".

[Tweety]

Originally Posted by new_grad06

Honestly,there just isn't enough time in one shift to do everything strictly "by the book", especially in a nursing home setting where you have 30-40 patients at a time-not to mention that most are stable anyway. I voted for,
"based on medication or diagnosis".

Count for 15 seconds and multiply times four. That's all the time it takes.

I agree that there isn't time to do anything by the book. But when you document respirations, unless it says "estimated count" you're falsifying medical records by guessing what you think it is. The time it takes you to look at them and guess, you could actually get a true count.

[prmenrs]

Babies: need to count @ least 30 seconds. If irregular, go for a full minute. Gently place your hand on the [sleeping, preferrably] baby's trunk, outside the blankets. Can't "feel" it? Slip your hand under some of the swaddling; watch head and neck @ same time; let the kid settle down--they'll squirm @ first and hold their breath--then count.

[Angie O'Plasty, RN]

I guess I must do it in my head at this point, because when I'm doing vitals and an assessment, I decide whether they're too fast or too slow.
Then I do a quick 15-sec count for all the normal-appearing folks, but I'll go to a full minute count for those who are outside of the range of 18-24.

I have also found people whose resps were 8 or 10 or as high as 40, and had been recorded as normal. But we need to remember that resps can change dramatically over the course of a couple of hours.

[vamedic4]

With our patient population, you'd be completely stupid if you DIDN'T count them each time. We have some little one's who are fine with resps of 20, some with resps > 90. It's too important not too count...each time.

[kimber1985]

I always count for 30 secs for a well patient with regular breathing pattern, a full minute if they have any sort of irregular breathing. I just don't feel responsible with 15 X 4.

[Angie O'Plasty, RN]

Originally Posted by vamedic4

With our patient population, you'd be completely stupid if you DIDN'T count them each time. We have some little one's who are fine with resps of 20, some with resps > 90. It's too important not too count...each time.

Vamedic, is that a typo??????

[Lacie]

I always count respirations during vitals! How difficult is it when your doing the pts pulse to go the extra while they are being still to do the respirations. After I count the pulse or heartrate by steth I continue to appear to do so while counting respirations as pt tend to hold still during that time and relaxed (at least those that are able to do so). If they think I'm listening to lung sounds, etc they tend to change the breathing pattern to "help" lol. I count when they dont know I'm doing so.

[Sheri257]

I've seen so many people NOT count respirations, it's ridiculous. Yes, I know there's not always enough time for everything but, when an entire floor of patients is supposedly at 20 it's absurd.