New nurse here. I am orientating on a Long Term Care unit. The first day on this unit, the seasoned nurse asked me to get bp's on residents that have parameters for cardio/pulmonary medications. This is done manually on this unit. It was taking me a few minutes each to get readings from many patients, because they were wearing sweaters, and their pulses are very irregular and faint.
After finally getting my first patient's reading done, the nurse who is orientating me, said, you only have about a minute per patient to get each reading, so you can get your med pass done.
My question is HOW am I going to accomplish that? If I leave the resident's arm sleeves in place, I can't hear the pulses through the clothing. And if I put my stethoscope under the sleeve, the noise from the clothing prevents me from hearing a pulse.
Also, the bp gage sit's atop a wobbly stand on large wheels, that is a challenge for me to see without turning my head; when I turn my head the ear pieces of my stethoscope come out.
Moving quickly is the order of the moment for this 1st med pass.
Later in the morning, I watched my seasoned nurse take a bp atop of a resident's sweater, using my stethoscope over the sweater. I can not comprehend how she can accurately assess this way.
What can I do about this. Helpful hints and insights are appreciated.
