[Indy]

Good gravy. Yah, if I have to put a probe on a forehead, that person's heading to ICU. I'm not interested in how well they perfuse their head, 'cause the body does that right up until the end.

[chnc1024]

I'm not yet a nurse, but I know that for me at lest, the auto BP machine's ALWAYS up my bp. I've also had them mess up, and acutally bruise my arm, because it kept retaking it, and squeezing the crap out of me. I told the nurse that this was happening, and she said "Oh that's normal" I said, "I've had my bp taken MANY times, and never once has it felt like this" She said "It'll be over soon", it beeped, she took off the cuff, and well I hope next time she will listen when someone tells her something isn't right...

[Polly Dipcya]

To me the most unaccurate device is the tympanic thermometer. Especially on children. I don't know how many hypothermic (according to the readings) i've had when in worked in a family practice clinic for over 10 years. Yes they're fast but very inaccurate... M aybe i'm old school but i like the old fashioned glass thermometers.

[NoMoreStudying]

When the machines are being difficult and taking forever, only to yield the dreaded (###), I could certainly do all of my vitals manually a lot quicker. But I've rechecked some manually that originally came up very high or low on the machine and it was pretty close, within 5-10.

[jmeador]

I worked at a University Hospital as a Senior Nursing Associate. When we were checked off in the lab (at school) and checked off 3 times with direct supervision by a nurse. We were allowed to be delegated blood draws, catheters, dressing changes, sugars, trach drsg changes... But remember it is up to the nurse to delegate these tasks and the should be sure of the competency of their aides. I loved the extra practice and it allowed me to keep my skills sharp. Its a great role transition for new nurses.
Nurses aides technically are not to be assessing pts. but any good nurse knows that you have to contantly assess, assess, and re-assess. So I can see you shock when techs do a drsg change ... "without assessing".

[emtrachel]

In regards to SpO2... so many things can affect the reading (nail polish, cold extremities due to environmental temperature, circulation etc...) and the respiratory effort of the patient is also very important. On the ambulance at least though, often it provides another "piece to the puzzle". We try to take a reading prior to O2 administration and then one after O2 has been administered a few minutes, so we have a point of reference.


I still hear my EMS instructor reminding us to "treat the patient, not the machine"!

[chadash]

question: had my bp taken the other day manually by nurse in Doctor's office. The nurse commented "160/100...sounds like it is time for medicine...." the doctor came in and didnt even mention it. Does blood pressure just hop up like that from time to time, or does it need treatment?

[Indy]

Chadash, my BP certainly does hop up there whenever people want to measure it. I had a 24 hour BP monitor a while back and it's wonderfully normal, but you get me in the doc's office and you'll see systolics up near 150's. Apparently I just get a wee bit too excited to have my BP taken.

However, your diastolic being around 100 isn't good. I'd start monitoring it more often and see if it tries to stay in that range. If so, see your doc again and cut down on the sodium in the meantime.

[Patti 2nd gen RN]

At a rehab---many of our older, most reliable nurses aides have difficulty hearing--new VS machines a Godsend!!! But with irreg. HR's, they don't really do well--so certain patients are noted to need manuals--and of course, re-check abnormals manually. And yes, the newer pulse ox's read much better than the older ones....

[cajunnga]

Depends, I think sometimes they are accurate and obviously sometimes they aren't. In the ER, triage is supposed to always do manual--L&D--we have no CNA and most of the time, no time to recheck. Obviously if it is out of range, we recheck.