Do you know how to find all the pulses?

[queenjulie, RN]

I'm in week three of nursing school, and I'm also a CNA (it's required before you can start nursing classes), and I have a question--should I know how to find the popliteal, femoral, temporal, pedal, and dorsalis pedis pulses? I know the general locations of them, but not whether you count them with the stethoscope, your fingers, or what, where exactly you feel for them, and why you would use them. We learned to do vitals and apical pulse in CNA class, and that's it. They haven't mentioned the others in nursing class yet, except in passing, but it seems so weird not to know them!

[vindy]

Hello,

Yes, you should know where to locate and palpate the pulses for the carotid, brachial, radial, femoral, popliteal, posterior tibial pulse, and the dorsalis pedis pulse, but you may learn this in skills lab...I learned the locations in fundamentals. You should measure the apical pulse with a stethoscope and the radial pulse with two or three fingers. Usually when you are palpating the other pulses with your fingers (or with a doppler for hard to find pulses), you are measuring the quality and strength of each pulse bilaterally except for the carotid pulse, this you do separately otherwise the patient can lose consciousness from reduced circulation to the brain. The strength measurement is as follows: +4 bounding, +3 full, +2 normal, +1 weak, 0 absent. Hope this helps!

[SAHMStudent]

the pedal pulse has been my enemy. Finally got it with help from my FF hubs. Make a "c" with your fingers and your thumb on the hand opposite the foot you want to check the pulse on (left hand right foot, right hand left foot), and cup the "c" around the foot with your thumb around the ball of the big toe. Slide your fingers from the outer edge of the foot to the inner edge. Don't be afraid to press firmly. You should be able to find the pedal pulse this way.

HTH!

[Boston-RN, RN]

agree with other posters......identifying and palpating pulses is very important....don't be afraid to keep looking even if the pt thinks your crazy....don't be afraid to use the doppler/steth

[BellsRNBSN]

You should definitely be able to locate a pulse in ALL of the designated areas. Try locating your pulse at each location on yourself and any friends or family members who will let you so that you have a good general idea where each pulse can be found. I practice on myself all the time!

While the exact location of a pulse is different on every individual, it will give you some practice so that you look less inexperienced in front of the patients

[Kaychell]

We just learned how to do this on Tuesday. I can find the pulses at each point a lot easier on others than I can myself. I have a very very faint ulnar pulse, however, my husbands pulse at each point can be felt very easily. You'll have to look around a bit on each person because the point is in a little different spot on everyone. DH's temporal pulse is a little higher up than where I can feel my own. I think the only pulse you use a steth to find is the apical pulse. Everything else you use your 2nd and 3rd fingers. Don't press too hard, that can make the pulse harder to find.

[queenjulie, RN]

I'm glad to hear you just learned them! It just seems so odd to be almost a month into nursing school, plus having been through the CNA training, and not have learned any of the lower-body pulses yet. I feel like that's information we should have pretty early on! :) After all, we're learning how to change dressings and insert NG tubes this week, and that seems much more invasive than pulses!

[Kaychell]

Now we haven't done any dressing changes or anything like that. The week before last we learned how to put on sterile gloves, isolation techniques, restraints, bed baths, bed making and handwashing. Last week we learned pulse points, BP's, temperature taking, and respirations. I think next week we learn ambulation.