Is there any truth to this?

People who insist this don't understand that temperatures can range throughout the day for an individual. Unless they also complain about feeling feverish or having symptoms I'd just document their statement and move along.

I know your frustration. I hear about the high 99.1 fever all of the time.. I try to provide education, but it falls on deaf ears or the patients argue with me.

Unless there's a real issue..."fevers" aren't an issue anyway so nod and move on. I'm "that person" to some degree because I rarely get a fever. I will feel ill and "feverish" but no significant temp. I even had surgery for a severe infection...no fever. So in my mind...I don't care about a fever but how somebody is feeling for most people.

Nope, no truth! However, watch out for the septic elderly person with a LOW temp. That one can happen.

I generally will not let this one go. Time for some pt education!

I get people with "special" vital signs all the time. I will always take the time to explain that while their BP is *always* 160/90, there is not going to be any physiological ill effect from the fact that it has been 120/80 for the last 6 hours.

I agree, this is usually brought up by a patient who spends way too much time in hospital, or a visitor who is way too far up in grandpa's business. I think it comes from the fact that they feel awful and sick and we are telling them "everything looks good." This provides zero validation of how they are feeling internally, and they want to staff to know that they are sick (whether they really are or not).

In the ER we see this a lot from people in the WR during triage or reassess, as a ploy to get into a bed quicker as well .

I believe that we should always combine the reading (in this case the thermometer) with what symtoms we can observe/assess and what the patient reports. I think that baseline temperature does matter. We know that body temperature varies due to many factors. Age, gender, time of day, medication, insomnia, physical fitness and the menstrual cycle. (The elderly typically have a much lower baseline temperature.)

If we dismiss a person who has an elevated temperature compared to their baseline temp, but that doesn't fall in the range that we consider febrile we might miss an infection.

Time for a change to assess and evaluate bo... [int J Nurs Pract. 2009] - PubMed - NCBI

What is the evidence base for the assessment and evaluation of body temperature? | Practice | Nursing Times

I doubt there is any "basis" for the claim of an elevated temp, other than the patient says so. In these days of customer service, probably best to just humor them, rather than try to teach them. OK, I'm being sarcastic here, but actually I have had a doctor walk into a room and validate what the patient said about their temp, just as I had got through trying to teach them!

Do you also roll your eyes when an athletic person says their pulse is usually in the 50s? When someone says their blood pressure usually runs 70s/50s?

Is it really THAT out of the ordinary for someone's baseline vital signs to be below "normal"?

You have people who's bp is 70/50 all the time? Walking around with no radial pulse?

In regards to monitoring ovulation, an early morning basal temp before you get out of bed is much different than what it is later in the day. I personally run 96.6 as a basal, but if you checked me any other time after being up I am back to normal 98.1-98.6. If a woman is basing their "norm" on basal temps then they are severely incorrect. As for fevers, evidence is growing regarding whether it is necessary to even treat them unless there is patient discomfort or unless they are high. Personally, if a patient is 99.5 and I am told they normally "run low" but they are awake and ambulating and functioning just fine, I am by no means humoring them and treating that fever. I would educate on the body's defense, the benefits of low grade fevers, and to give me a call if they begin to feel uncomfortable in any way. Now, if they were admitted for a significant reason related to fevers then my approach would be much different.