Blood Pressure and Pulses

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I know that optimum is 120/80 for b/p. but my instructor is asking if i checked my vitals on pulse and apical because they aren't making sense. I really don't know what when the pulse or apical is good or bad in connection with the blood pressure. could somebody help with this

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Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.

See if these resources will be of some assistance:

http://www.fpnotebook.com/CV85.htm

http://academic.luzerne.edu/vclarke/nur101/vitals.pdf

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.
I know that optimum is 120/80 for b/p. but my instructor is asking if i checked my vitals on pulse and apical because they aren't making sense. I really don't know what when the pulse or apical is good or bad in connection with the blood pressure. could somebody help with this

I am not sure what your question is...what pulse rate did you get? Optimally, you would want a pulse in the range of 60-100, although it will vary from each peron. It sounded from your post that you were making pulse and apical two different things.

The pulse is the patients heart rate. It can be taken in several different places...carotid, apical, brachial, radial, femoral, pedal, etc etc...

Does this help?

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Specializes in LTC.

Maybe she wanted you to check when the pulse stops before you did the pressure so you would know how high to pump up the cuff.

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Specializes in LTC.

Maybe she wanted you to check when the pulse stops before you did the pressure so you would know how high to pump up the cuff.

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Maybe she wanted you to check when the pulse stops before you did the pressure so you would know how high to pump up the cuff.

You mean blood presssure by palpation? I almost lost marks on my assessment for almost forgetting to do that .

The apical impulse is palpable in some people but not in most due to its rather awkward location. The apical pulse you can auscultate. Its usually faster and you take the carotid or radial at the same time.

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Maybe she wanted you to check when the pulse stops before you did the pressure so you would know how high to pump up the cuff.

You mean blood presssure by palpation? I almost lost marks on my assessment for almost forgetting to do that .

The apical impulse is palpable in some people but not in most due to its rather awkward location. The apical pulse you can auscultate. Its usually faster and you take the carotid or radial at the same time.

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usually the apical and radial should equal each other if not there's a pulse deficit!

:balloons:

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In a normal situation apical and radial pulse equal each other. The apical and radial pulse is best taken by two people, one on the pulse and one on the stethesope. You both start at the same time and finish at the same time and should come up with the same number. When there are more apical than radial beats, there is the presence of some form of ectopy that is not a strong enough beat to be felt radially, and so does not perfuse the body. This is not good. Like a two to one ratio. 70 apical, 35 radial is not conducive with life and needs emergency intervention. It is very likely a ventricular bigeminal rythym. Sometmes atrial fib has some weaker impulses that do not perfuse the body well either. Always as your patient how he feels, and see how he looks. This is a huge part of your assessment, then utilize your vital signs assessment in combination with this. Hope this helps

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Thanks so much for the suggested web sites. I like them both, but the FPNotes is FULL of info. I have passed that link onto my student friends.Every little bit helps. :-)

Pammie

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can someone please explain to me what ie pulse volume baseline

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
can someone please explain to me what ie pulse volume baseline

Pulse Volume Recording (plethysmography) is a non-evasive test that measures the blood flow in the arteries of the arms and legs. This is information about this test:

A baseline would be the first measurements obtained when this test is done for the first time on a patient. Subsequent tests at later dates would be compared to this baseline measurement.

We can also measure pulse volume in a less objective way when we nurses do our physical assessment of patients by the following grading scale:

4+ = bounding

3+ = increased

2+ = normal

1+ = weak

0 = absent

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