How much BP practice did you get in the program?

We practiced blood pressures on each other a lot. We also had our clinicals in LTC and did manual BPs all the time on patients. I love having my own BP kit and use it quite often. In acute care, it is very important to be able to take a manual BP and feel confident at it. The automatic ones are not always accurate and can sometimes need to be double checked. It would not be a waste of money to invest in your own. Plus, you'll always have plenty of people around to practice on with friends and family asking "can you check my blood pressure.? :chuckle

I got about an hours worth of practice. It's not a skill my state tests.

I didn't get much practice either and to tell you the truth if I had to take a manual BP now I would be in trouble!! I am sure deep down I remember how to do it but working at the hospitals we also use the automatic/digital sphygmomanometers so I never have a chance to use the skill.

We got virtually no practice on any of the skills. Our instructor admonished us to practice at home ---- she considered it homework and our responsibility. A number of people got together and practiced at someone's house.

As far as taking manual BP, our hospital always had isolation rooms and post-op needs (post-op patients were monitored for 2 hours every 15 minutes) and often did not have equipment to leave in the room to do the automatic BP's. So, we took manual BP's a great deal. I don't know if that is 'standard' everywhere, but we would have needed dozens of extra automatic sphyg's for all the floors to cover all the isolations/post-op and no one was going to purchase that much equipment. I don't think a day went by without taking at least one manual BP.

I got none what so ever. I got my CNA in ohio in '94 and at that time it wasn't a skill that they tested. VS consited of PTR. pulse, temp, resp. that was it. No BP. it wasn't until i moved to OK that I learned how to do a BP. Some states are different.

Thanks for the replies everyone! Well, I was worried over nothing! We got to practice bp's for 15 minutes today. We were in groups of two and each duo had a turn working with our instructor on a double stethoscope. I got it on my very first try and was accurate with each one I did. The instructor signed me off for one of my three required accurate bp readings. I'm so relieved! (She said that she wants to sign off our three seperate readings on three different days.)

I'm glad you got to work more in class today. For me, the double scope was about impossible to hear with. So I had to really work at that one and I'm SO glad I didn't draw that skill in the cert test!! the normal one seemed so much easier when I just used that.

I did BP's 'in real life' today for the first time outside clinicals and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. I only had the lead CNA check me once and it was indeed 80/60. I fumbled around a little but got them all done and didn't embarrass myself too bad. It does get easier!

If you are still having difficulty hearing: make sure the metal pieces with the ear pieces are tilted forward, toward your nose (the metal parts with the earpieces are adjustable) and make sure they are deep in your ears or you will hear everything else in the room and be distracted. If all else fails, buy a good stethescope. The cheap ones with the hard plastic ear pieces are harder to hear from. The better stethescopes have soft ear pieces that will not hurt your ears and they also usually have one tube from the bell/diaphragm to the earpieces, not a double tubing. I always encourage students that plan to stay in the medical field to invest in a nice stethescope, it makes a world of difference listening through one. If my students are struggling, I let them try mine so they can see the difference. (our school bought ones have the double tubing and hard plastic earpieces and many students say they are hard to hear through, but they are inexpensive enough for the school to purchase for student use)

Those links are GREAT! Esp the virtual one, I'm going to refer my entire class to it so they can practice hearing the sound. THANK YOU!!!!!