I need to assess my student their practical skills of measuring vital sIGNS

maggiemae1013 · Nov 20, 2011

i can't even understand this. you're an educator? what kind of students do you have? i don't understand the question - if you are testing students on vital signs then obviously you just need to make sure they are doing them correctly.

iteachob, MSN, RN · Nov 20, 2011

i can't even understand this. you're an educator? what kind of students do you have? i don't understand the question - if you are testing students on vital signs then obviously you just need to make sure they are doing them correctly.

Maggiemae....this is an INTERNATIONAL forum.....be kind.

iteachob, MSN, RN · Nov 20, 2011

HELLO GUYS,
I have a question. I am fresh nurse educator, and now I need to assess my student their practical skills of measuring vital sIGNS.
WHAT ARE THE MAJOR THINGS I WILL ASSESS. hOW TO MAKE FINAL FAIR GRADE.
ANY SUGGESTION WILL BE USEFUL.

Basically, they just need to be accurate. If they are inaccurate, they are not proficient. Do you have a teaching stethoscope for evaluating their accuracy with apical pulse? That can be very helpful. Otherwise, you could simultaneously take a radial pulse on the "patient" while they are doing it. Their finding should be very close to, if not exactly, the same as yours. Same with respiratory rate.

We give our students 3 chances to pass each skill. They have to pass before being allowed to perform in the clinical area.

ubsjl · Nov 21, 2011

hey maggiemae1013 who are you to joke my question,

in general they know how to assess vital signs but should i assess each step like in the book or only general points of mesuring vital signs.

be polite. where is your ethics .

maggiemae1013 · Nov 21, 2011

i'm being serious. so you're an educator, but to who? cna students? are you trying to figure out how to make a clinical exam? like iteachob says, use one of those teaching stethoscopes. otherwise you won't know if they're getting them right.

conscientiousnurse · Nov 22, 2011

I teach nursing assistants, and this is how we evaluate.:

We use a double stethoscope to listen to the blood pressure readings, and the student's finding must be within 8 mm Hg of ours. We also take points off for incorrect procedure, such as having the cuff too loose, not having the sensor over the brachial artery, or not feeling for the brachial artery before starting.

For the radial pulse, they take it for 60 seconds, and we feel the pulse on the opposite arm. (They must feel for it on the correct side of the wrist). If their reading is not within 4 beats of ours, we feel the pulse then on the same arm they just took it in and compare with their original reading. For respirations, their number must be within 2 of ours.

sahrdh · Dec 1, 2011

I teach LPNs and I have them taken everyone's vital signs in the class. (I have 24 students) I compare the readings once they turn me the form back in to see just how close they are to each others. We also have a manikin to assess on and I have a couple of double stethoscopes to make sure they are hearing what they should be.

PsychNurseWannaBe, BSN, RN · Dec 2, 2011

I teach nursing assistants, and this is how we evaluate.:
We use a double stethoscope to listen to the blood pressure readings, and the student's finding must be within 8 mm Hg of ours. We also take points off for incorrect procedure, such as having the cuff too loose, not having the sensor over the brachial artery, or not feeling for the brachial artery before starting.
For the radial pulse, they take it for 60 seconds, and we feel the pulse on the opposite arm. (They must feel for it on the correct side of the wrist). If their reading is not within 4 beats of ours, we feel the pulse then on the same arm they just took it in and compare with their original reading. For respirations, their number must be within 2 of ours.

Yeah that.... its similiar to what we did when we did an in-service for CNAs