Can you take a blood pressure reading without a stethoscope?

Nursing Students Student Assist

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I heard something from a nurse with 10+ years experience in clinicals this past week...she said that when she worked in a hospital, on her unit they checked blood pressure without a stethoscope?? Could someone please explain to me how that would be done, if it indeed can be done? I realize that there are many, many things that I have yet to hear or see in my short time in this field (I'm still a student), but that is the first time I've heard anything like that!

Thanks!

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Specializes in Ante-Intra-Postpartum, Post Gyne.

Dima-map machine with digital read-out?

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When I was in the Army training to be a medic our class our instructor taugt us how to watch the needle to see where it pauses and starts to pulse along with the heatbeat. Where it starts and stops to pulse should match the same place where you start and stop hearing the beat in the stethescope. We used this method when there was too much going on around you to be able to listen for the beat.

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you can obtain a SBP by palpation, but not the DBP...

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You can, as Oceangel describes, but it's obviously not ideal and would usually only be used if you really had no other option.

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Ditto Oceangel & elkpark. If you watch the needle you can indeed obtain SBP & DBP. That comes from my grandfather, a surgeon and veteran. It is certainly not ideal but a good skill for those you-never-know-scenarios.

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I've never heard of watching the needle..all I know is you can palpate for a systolic but you need to use a stethoscope for the diastolic. Nurses usually palpate for a systolic if they have no clue what the patient's baseline systolic is to avoid pumping too much or too little.

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you can obtain a SBP by palpation, but not the DBP...

Exactly, I have done this many times when traveling in the back of an ambulance running emergency traffic on the way to the hospital. It can be hard to hear in the back of a busy one ton diesel truck.

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I realize that this was 3 years so but I noticed that on my 3rd try doing BP because I couldn't find that artery to save my life.

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