astone1

Hi, I have a question about taking blood pressures. I am a student nurse and on the med/surg floor that I am completing clinical on we use fairly new Welch Allyn all-in-one automated vital machines. As with most blood pressure cuffs these come with an artery marking on the blood pressure cuff. When I see the nurses take blood pressures they just throw the cuff on the arm and I dont believe they put alot of thought into placing the artery marking on the artery. When I take blood pressures I always try to get the artery marker over the artery as best as I can but sometimes I find it hard to get it over the artery on some patients and other times I put on the cuff and forget the pay attention to the artery line. The pressures I get are pretty consistant to what the patient has been getting, I havnt really ever gotten a really odd pressure for that patient. As mentioned above, these are automated devices that are fairly new. I am kind of worried that sometime when I take a blood pressure the artery line isnt exactly over the artery Is this going to significantly alter my values? I am worried now.... Thanks

Hi, I have a question about taking blood pressures. On the floor that I am completing clinical on we use fairly new Welch Allyn all-in-one automated vital machines. As with most blood pressure cuffs these come with an artery marking on the blood pressure cuff. When I see the nurses take blood pressures they just throw the cuff on the arm and I dont believe they put alot of thought into placing the artery marking on the artery. When I take blood pressures I always try to get the artery marker over the artery as best as I can but sometimes I find it hard to get it over the artery on some patients and other times I put on the cuff and forget the pay attention to the artery line. The pressures I get are pretty consistant to what the patient has been getting, I havnt really ever gotten a really odd pressure for that patient. As mentioned above, these are automated devices that are fairly new. I am kind of worried that sometime when I take a blood pressure the artery line isnt exactly over the artery Is this going to significantly alter my values? I am worried now.... Thanks

Hi, I am a nursing student and today one of my surgical patients was to be given Fragmin (Daltaparin) in one of the prefilled syringes. Because the patient had abdominal surgery the shot is given in the arm (seems to be the standard on the floor because we have alot of abdominal surgery). Anywho... I gave it on the right arm because I happened to be on that side. Now I came back in 3.5-4 hours later to take vital signs and I noticed on the left arm the patient had an IV so I decided to use the right arm to take the blood pressure on (same arm as the fragmin shot). I didnt even think about the fact that I had given the shot in that same arm until I came home from shift. Is this going to cause any adverse affects (taking BP on arm that fragmin was given?) I actually noticed alot of bruising on the other arm (arm I didnnt give the framgin in). So maybe it was good that I gave it on the opposite arm? Should i be worried though? Thanks