Normal temperatures =)

Published

How many of you have had THIS conversation (or one similar) with your patients?

"What's my temp?"

"98.2"

"OOH, that's high for me, I'm usually 97. I have a fever."

:banghead:

Any variation of this happens ALL THE TIME. They're either really high (when they're normal) OR way too low (when they're normal). I get tired of saying, no, that's really ok, and not a cause for concern.........

Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

I work on a floor with a steady influx of GI patients. General protocol for the group is to let temps ride until around 101.5.

My usual responses are:

97.o: "It takes my temp at that as well"

99-100.5: Your body is working its course, fevers are part of the healing process, my job is to manage that process. Then I list symptoms of impending spikes and we work together to manage. Also I find a moderately cool cloth makes most patients feel a lot better about not being stuffed with tylenol the second they go out of the normal range.

I had a family member concerned once because the patients BP was 137/78. They told me it was too low since he normally ran in the 150's systolically. It took a lot not to give them the patient look you give a child when they are being silly.

Tait

PS. The scary thing about temps is how fast they can move. I had a guy recently who went from shivers and 98.4 to 104.9 in less than 10 minutes. I learned a lot that day, even how to operate an ancient cooling blanket machine!

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RN: "

RN: "Because numerous randomized controlled trials have shown that you are very very annoying, and sometimes it's just better to head these problems off early before they get out of control."

Ok, they will know you are lying here. To have a randomized controlled trial means finding a sufficient number of non-annoying Pts.

We all know there aren't more than 3 in the entire world. :coollook:

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Specializes in Medical.
RN: "Because numerous randomized controlled trials have shown that you are very very annoying, and sometimes it's just better to head these problems off early before they get out of control."

Awesome!

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