Best thermometer for kids with aversion to touch

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Specializes in Peds, developmental disability.

What thermometer do you prefer to use, considering that it needs to be accurate?

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Specializes in Peds(PICU, NICU float), PDN, ICU.

Just pick a random temp in the normal range and write it down....ok, ok that's what the nurses I work with do because they are lazy!

How old is the pt? Are they able to take their own temp or hold a thermometer? There are thermometers that are like a sticker. Could you use that and just change it daily or something? I've seen another thermometer that you hold near the side of the pts face and you don't touch them. Not sure where to get it. Is the child stable enough to get an order to check it less often?

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Specializes in Peds, developmental disability.

Those are creative thoughts. Dad would LOVE it if I got that order!!

An interesting thing happened at her school...she is 4. The school nurse got a MUCH higher reading them I did...really pretty nervous, I thought...

I use a ReliOn temple thermometer. Takes six seconds. Actually I use it behind the ear. Kids can't wiggle away. I liked it, til the school nurse 'proved' me wrong.

Does anyone else use that style? Or just whatever is in the home?

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I am not a fan of temple thermometers. We use a digital thermometer axillary. If it indicates hypo- or hyperthermia, I check rectally.

What kind of thermometer did the nurse have? How do you know that hers is calibrated any better than yours?

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

We need a specific physician's order to check rectal temps but that doesn't mean that the parent can't check rectally.

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I've been pleased with the professional-grade Exergen temporal scanner; it only takes about 1 second.

As with any device, it needs to be used appropriately and properly.

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Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.

like ventmommy, digital axillary

takes longer, but accurate

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Specializes in Peds, developmental disability.

I keep running into situations where the kid or parent or both don't want to be bothered by taking temps. So, I use the small, quick temporal as fast as possible.

Maybe that's why some nurses make up temps - stubborn parents. I never have.

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Specializes in Peds(PICU, NICU float), PDN, ICU.
I keep running into situations where the kid or parent or both don't want to be bothered by taking temps. So, I use the small, quick temporal as fast as possible.

Maybe that's why some nurses make up temps - stubborn parents. I never have.

I almost never have a parent complain about a temp being taken. It just doesn't make sense. I had a case where the thermometer broke and nurses kept documenting temps. We asked the kid if the nurses were taking his temp and he said no.

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Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.

i don't know about the pt.s answer, but a lot of nurses carry their

own thermometer, b/p cuff, etc.

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i don't know about the pt.s answer, but a lot of nurses carry their

own thermometer, b/p cuff, etc.

I required nurses to use our thermometer and B/P cuff. Even if our equipment had calibration that was slightly off, the readings would be consistent. There is no guarantee that the nurse's equipment would be calibrated any better than my own (which was professional grade).

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I required nurses to use our thermometer and B/P cuff. Even if our equipment had calibration that was slightly off, the readings would be consistent. There is no guarantee that the nurse's equipment would be calibrated any better than my own (which was professional grade).

Of course, yours were probably getting abused and misused while the nurses' were likely well taken care of.

My biggest gripe with the "ours only" approach is that there often aren't enough to permit doing the job efficiently...

Long ago I used to work for an electronics company... Hewlett-Packard... long before they split with Agilent and decided to buy Compaq... back when they were THE world-class manufacturer of high-end test equipment (and calculators... I still mourn my HP-41 and my HP-11)...

HP's quality-assurance was second-to-none... and much better than any healthcare organization I've ever seen...

And yet, we were permitted to use our own metrology equipment... we simply had to submit it to the QA department for regular validation...

Win-win...

If only hospitals were run by engineers...

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