Is this a problem? taking your neighbors blood pressure

caliotter3 · Mar 18, 2010

Just generally not a good idea. You can't tell when someone will get the great idea to sue you. Just avoid it by directing them to a practitioner.

getoverit, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Mar 18, 2010

I don't think there's anything wrong with doing that. your friend isn't trying to adjust her medications or disagree with her physician's advice.

Taking the BP could alert her to the need to make a doctor's appt or even call 911. I've helped my neighbors in small ways like that and I thought it would be rude not to. just make good boundaries and don't be taken advantage of.

We don't take visitor's BPs, CBGs etc in the hospital because it's against policy and not a good idea because we're already in a hospital and the only wise place to treat a person who is not currently admitted is the ER. outside the facility is a completely different story. there are BP machines in walmart...no ethical or legal violations there.

twentytenRN · Mar 18, 2010

Would not do it. Even for the sweet little old lady. Sweet little old lady could have a sweet little grandson that's a lawyer and a sweet little lawsuit happy family. You just never know. I'd recommend her to get a self-inflatable cuff that she can use to take her own BP. Then SHE can call her own doctor if she gets abnormal results.

Nope, wouldn't touch it.

SFRN · Mar 18, 2010

OMG. People are getting so crazy with this "I might get sued" mentality. There is NOTHING wrong with taking the neighbors blood pressure!!! In fact it's a nice gesture for a neighbor. If her blood pressure is out of the norm then refer her to her PCP, or if it is unstable in any way then refer her to the ED.

getoverit, BSN, RN, EMT-P · Mar 18, 2010

For all the people who think they might get sued....what kind of case would someone have??? Now, if you inflated a cuff over her fistula then that would be negligent and she would have a valid legal complaint....otherwise it's absurd to refuse something like that on the grounds that you'd be sued.

anyone can sue anyone for anything at anytime....but that doesn't mean a lawyer will take every case and a judge can certainly throw out something as a waste of the court's time. I could sue someone for wearing a Washington Redskins t-shirt (and I've thought about it everytime I've seen someone wearing one!!!) but I'd have to find someone willing to go to court with me for something stupid like that.

don't be paralyzed into not doing the right thing just because you're afraid of something that has about a 0.0000001% of happenening. What if the whole world operated that way???

mamamerlee, LPN · Mar 18, 2010

I see nothing wrong with taking a neighbor's BP, as long as we are not making suggestions about their meds, and referring them to their PCP or the ER if appropriate. If this became a habit - the neighbor asking you to take it nearly every day - then I would suggest an automatic wrist cuff so the friend could take it herself.

I would - and have - done simple first aid on friends and neighbors, and advised them to go to the hospital or called 911 on their behalf. If what you do is reasonable and prudent, then you are covered.

I have rendered aid at more than 1 accident scene, and simply called 911 and the family members of people hurt in car accidents. I hope that someone who stop to help me if it was necessary.

Can someone sue you? Well, they can try, but I don't think they would get far.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Mar 18, 2010

I am still a student so I don't know if their are any rules against this but I don't see what can be wrong in taking a BP, we aren't preforming out of our scope of practice or anything. It's just a BP, not anything invasive, I mean people can go into a walmart and get a inaccurate one on the machine in there.

Now if someone is saying, well your BP is 160/110 but I really don't see a need to worry so the Pt does nothing and ends up in serious trouble, then I can see wrong doing.

But someone saying, Can you take my BP, and the person taking it and saying this is what it was and not giving any medical advice (other then suggesting to SEEK medical help) I don't see where you can go wrong.

Again though, I don't know if their are laws against this. If it's not breaking any laws or risking my license I would do it.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Mar 18, 2010

I see nothing wrong with taking a neighbor's BP, as long as we are not making suggestions about their meds, and referring them to their PCP or the ER if appropriate. If this became a habit - the neighbor asking you to take it nearly every day - then I would suggest an automatic wrist cuff so the friend could take it herself.
I would - and have - done simple first aid on friends and neighbors, and advised them to go to the hospital or called 911 on their behalf. If what you do is reasonable and prudent, then you are covered.
I have rendered aid at more than 1 accident scene, and simply called 911 and the family members of people hurt in car accidents. I hope that someone who stop to help me if it was necessary.
Can someone sue you? Well, they can try, but I don't think they would get far.

I know in school they have taught us that as long as we are not practicing outside of our scope of practice, or doing something we are told not to do by the person then we are covered if they try to sue. I feel the same, I always think, what if it were me or a loved one? I was appalled in Psych class one day when a teacher posed a questions, they said if you saw someone injured and in distress on the side of the road, would you stop to help. Only about 6 people said they would, the rest said they would call 911 but not stop and about 1/3 of the class said they MIGHT call for help but they would just go on like nothing happened because it was probably someone trying to stage a jacking :|

cherrybreeze, ADN, RN · Mar 18, 2010

Several things surprise me reading the responses, including the use of the term "scope of practice" and stating uncertainty if there are "rules or laws" against doing this. You're taking a blood pressure, on a neighbor, at her request. It is still the neighbor's responsibility to interpret the result, and to act upon it or not. You can suggest that she call her doctor or go to the ER if it is elevated, but the responsibility to follow through is hers either way.

Any Joe Schmoe can go to a drugstore and buy either an automatic cuff, or a manual cuff and steth. Perhaps the neighbor cannot afford an automatic cuff, or has poor eyesight and cannot read the screen of one. All the OP's friend is doing is obtaining that reading. I think you'd be hardpressed to bring a civil case against someone for doing that....I mean, should something happen to said neighbor due to an elevated BP, she wouldn't have even known it WAS elevated, so the result would have been inevitable. You're decreasing the risk of such an event by letting her know what her blood pressure is. How to handle it is up to her, as long as she's mentally with it. You can't make her do something she doesn't want to, therefore it would not be your fault.

This is a very different scenario than checking vitals on a family member of a patient, as then you are currently functioning in your RN role. The hospital sees it as a potential liabiliity, which is why they frown on it (they may or may not have a policy about it), but it still isn't UNLAWFUL. We had the wife of a patient become unresponsive just last week. We acted, and got her on a cart, got vitals, got a blood sugar, etc. We did bring her down to the ER eventually (she came back to quite quickly), but we viewed our interventions as an extension of what they would eventually do. We got the code cart in there, too....you just never know. We would not have waited to get her down to the ED before doing anything, if she HAD coded! The nursing supervisor was present for this, as well, so she supported our assessment of this lady. (I do realize this is different than just randomly checking a blood pressure at someone's request, but it's just something to think about...time would be of the essence if she were having an MI or a stroke or whatever)

Of course, OP, if at any point your friend ISN'T comfortable going it, then she should politely refuse and suggest that her neighbor purchase an automatic cuff.

~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN · Mar 18, 2010

Several things surprise me reading the responses, including the use of the term "scope of practice" and stating uncertainty if there are "rules or laws" against doing this. You're taking a blood pressure, on a neighbor, at her request. It is still the neighbor's responsibility to interpret the result, and to act upon it or not. You can suggest that she call her doctor or go to the ER if it is elevated, but the responsibility to follow through is hers either way.
Any Joe Schmoe can go to a drugstore and buy either an automatic cuff, or a manual cuff and steth. Perhaps the neighbor cannot afford an automatic cuff, or has poor eyesight and cannot read the screen of one. All the OP's friend is doing is obtaining that reading. I think you'd be hardpressed to bring a civil case against someone for doing that....I mean, should something happen to said neighbor due to an elevated BP, she wouldn't have even known it WAS elevated, so the result would have been inevitable. You're decreasing the risk of such an event by letting her know what her blood pressure is. How to handle it is up to her, as long as she's mentally with it. You can't make her do something she doesn't want to, therefore it would not be your fault.
This is a very different scenario than checking vitals on a family member of a patient, as then you are currently functioning in your RN role. The hospital sees it as a potential liabiliity, which is why they frown on it (they may or may not have a policy about it), but it still isn't UNLAWFUL. We had the wife of a patient become unresponsive just last week. We acted, and got her on a cart, got vitals, got a blood sugar, etc. We did bring her down to the ER eventually (she came back to quite quickly), but we viewed our interventions as an extension of what they would eventually do. We got the code cart in there, too....you just never know. We would not have waited to get her down to the ED before doing anything, if she HAD coded! The nursing supervisor was present for this, as well, so she supported our assessment of this lady. (I do realize this is different than just randomly checking a blood pressure at someone's request, but it's just something to think about...time would be of the essence if she were having an MI or a stroke or whatever)
Of course, OP, if at any point your friend ISN'T comfortable going it, then she should politely refuse and suggest that her neighbor purchase an automatic cuff.

I don't like stating things for a fact if I am not sure, thus why I said I wasn't sure if their are any rules or laws against this. It didn't seem to me, it's something that one can get in trouble for, if they are simply taking the BP and giving the results. But again, I am not going to state for a fact that their is nothing wrong with it, if I don't know for sure.

BabyLady, BSN, RN · Mar 18, 2010

I think people go overboard with this and make it into something that it's not.

First of all, when you are at the hospital, hospital policy usually dictates you cannot take vital signs, etc without the patient being admitted, however, we sure as heck know that we take each other's blood pressure and blood sugars of visitors that have forgotten their meter all the time.

You cannot force medical care on someone...that is the bottom line.

I have a neighbor that occasionally asks me to come take her mother's blood pressure...I even did VS as a STUDENT when we did a home health rotation.

All you can do if it's high is to advise them to call 911 (if it's really high) or to call their physician if it's not within nomal limits.

Think about it...Triage nurses do this every day when people call the ER with such-and-such symptom...they say to either call their doctor or come into the ER, they don't call the ambulance FOR THEM.

There is nothing else you can "do" other than advise them to to contact their physician or call 911 if it's emergent...anything else is medical treatment and that is outside you scope of practice.