Blood pressure tools

[AngelKissed857, BSN, RN]

I am new to correctional nursing, and am currently working in a very busy county jail. Many patients cannot be removed from their cells, or have the door opened for me to do assessments- often have to do everything through the food slot. When it comes to taking BPs, it is standard practice to use automatic wrist cuffs. These are wildly inaccurate, so much so that I did a search for EBP studies on them, and there was no good news about their use. So my question for all you highly experienced correctional nurses is, how do you manage? I'm so uncomfortable with the values I'm recording, mgmt does not want use to record what type of cuff we've used to differentiate between a manual, conventional cuff, and these little pieces of garbage. Advice? Thanks in advance for your time.

[Orca, ADN, ASN, RN]

The wrist cuff is better than nothing. If you have to do everything though the food slot, that is probably your best bet. I have done BP checks on guys in cuffs, but not through the food slot.

[amoLucia]

But usually the cuff directions state for the pt to cross the arm across the chest at the heart level.

I don't want to stir up problems because I do recognize 'safety' first'.

Does the medical director know?

I have to say this, this could be a school project for students to check out different readings for some type of research project.

[AngelKissed857, BSN, RN]

But usually the cuff directions state for the pt to cross the arm across the chest at the heart level.

I don't want to stir up problems because I do recognize 'safety' first'.

Does the medical director know?

I have to say this, this could be a school project for students to check out different readings for some type of research project.

I get safety first too, but since vitals are only being taken on CIWA, COWS, or medically compromised patients, that's a safety issue as well. And since the cuff does have to be palm up at heart level, there's no way that works through the slot. Spoke with my mgr about my concerns last week, hoping he'll have something new this week on it, but not holding my breath. Thanks for responding!

[Woodstock11]

I work in a mens' prison in confinement mostly.. I usually have a pretty good idea about wether the inmate will return the wrist cuff or not. If I am fairly sure that I will get it back with out incident, I put in on the inmate through the flap and instruct him to stand up & how to hold his arm. When the cuff stops , the inmate sticks his arm out the flap and I get my reading & cuff. I don't remember a single time that the inmate refused to give it back. The cuff I have is pretty accurate for bp. Pulse....not so much ....I take it manually. If it is an inmate with known cardiac issues, or wildly swinging bp, I will ask the Officer if he has time to take the I/m out for me. Before we go into confinement , I will tell him "I know it is a total pain in your butt...but I really need joe blow out for a bp check. Do you mind.???? . I know they really don't want to do it...It is all in the apporoach. 😁