O2 sat on telemetry

[yelworc123]

I am brand new student on a telemetry floor. Most of the patients are on CPO-continuous pulse oximetry and have a MAP reading on the monitor and therefore no O2 sat. I was doing a set of vitals on a patient who was connected with telemetry but did not have the probe connected from his finger to the box. He didn't have the probe on atal. So when I placed the o2 sat that was connected to the monitor and put it on the patient's finger as I was doing the BP, it did not read it. Sometimes they have the probe on the finger but it is not connected to the tele box. How do I connect to get an O2 sat reading?

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

The pulse ox should be on the opposite extremity for which you are doing blood pressure. If you put the pulse ox on the same hand you are taking blood pressure, the reading will not take or otherwise be off.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

In addition to an inflated BP cuff interfering with the sat reading, if you have questions about how to connect a cable to the monitor, it would be best to ask your instructor or someone working on that floor. Each facility has the option to purchase its own monitors; they may not all work the same.

[AliNajaCat]

There is a way to swap out different accessories on most monitoring systems, but you'd have to get one of the nurses on the floor to show you how to use that particular brand. There may also be a portable SpO2 monitor that you could borrow to check the SpO2. You can use the same hand as the BP cuff is on for a spot check, but not at the same time the cuff is inflated, for obvious reasons.