Monitoring Oxygen Saturation????

I'm an ICU RN and my hospital policy just changed . When monitoring oxygen sats we can't put finger sensors on the forehead anymore. The reading is inaccurate. I get that it is wrong, test it if you don't believe me. It shows 100% when it should say 80%. I just want to know the reason why it doesn't work. If you have any idea please let me know. No one can tell me . They can only tell me that it doesn't work. I've tried researching it, but can't find it anywhere :trout: .

My understanding is that the laser needs to have the other side of the sensor to bounce off of. Fingertip, toe tip, earlobe....all of them can be clamped with the sensor. Foreheads can't.

My understanding is that the laser needs to have the other side of the sensor to bounce off of. Fingertip, toe tip, earlobe....all of them can be clamped with the sensor. Foreheads can't.

I disagree...you can clamp the forehead or brow area provided your patient has a very Frankensteinish forhead.---Just kidding--trying to blow off some stress --I took my NCLEX today:trout:

I disagree...you can clamp the forehead or brow area provided your patient has a very Frankensteinish forhead.---Just kidding--trying to blow off some stress --I took my NCLEX today:trout:

*pthbbbbth!*

A knowitall with a case of nurseitis!!

(Just kidding, really! Congrats on taking the NCLEX, everything else will seem easy by comparison!)

I'm an ICU RN and my hospital policy just changed . When monitoring oxygen sats we can't put finger sensors on the forehead anymore. The reading is inaccurate. I get that it is wrong, test it if you don't believe me. It shows 100% when it should say 80%. I just want to know the reason why it doesn't work. If you have any idea please let me know. No one can tell me . They can only tell me that it doesn't work. I've tried researching it, but can't find it anywhere :trout: .

I've never seen O2 sats done on a forehead.

I disagree...you can clamp the forehead or brow area provided your patient has a very Frankensteinish forhead.---Just kidding--trying to blow off some stress --I took my NCLEX today:trout:

:rotfl:

Congrats on the NCLEX! Hope it went well for you!

SpO2 monitors work by sending a laser through tissue and vasculature and sensing how much infared light passes through. I'm not sure if higher light concentration, that is less absorption, or lower light concentration (higher absorption) gives you higher sats, but the point is that unless your patient has enough gravity to warp light (and the U.S. isn't that bariatric... yet) you can't send a laser through the forehead vasculature and bend it to hit a non-linear sensor. If you try, you get a piss-poor guestimate from a non-critical thinking computer.

try putting int on the forehead and crosschecking it with a handheld to see what the difference is, i will do this at work when I am back in.