[Kim O'Therapy]

Hello All:

I am trying to document pulse rythm and quality using the 0 - 4 scale and a description. I have been through all of my books and cannot find a definition of the scale. For example, I know that 0 = absent. Its the rest that's driving me crazy! Thanks ahead of time.

[Nikki422]

Hey Kim..

Well, I learned pulses on a 0-3 scale..not four, but this is what we learned:
0-Absent
1-Weak/thready, difficult to feel
2-Normal, easily detected, obliterated by strong pressure
3-Bounding, difficult to obliterate

Hope this helps!

[Daytonite]

Hi, Kim O'Therapy!



You will find this information on some of the assessment links that are listed on this thread: http://allnurses.com/forums/f205/health-assessment-resources-techniques-forms-145091.html, specifically the ones from the medical schools. You are looking for what is "grading of the pulse". Here is what the scale is from the section on examination of the arterial pulses in the chapter on the peripheral vascular system, page 330, of my copy of Textbook of Physical Diagnosis: History and Examination, third edition, by Mark H. Swartz.

0 Absent
1 Diminished
2 Normal
3 Increased
4 Bounding

Unfortunately, these terms and the grading was not further explained or defined. Nor was there any kind of glossary in the back of the book. Guess the medical students learn the meaning of each of these term by some mysterious process. Ha! Ha! Maybe one of the online assessment sites will have that information.