janieg44

Oh, yes, now I see what you mean.

Thank-you. Do you mean that if the blood pressure is outside the normal limits, hold and call the doc? In an elderly woman after surgery, it's better to be safe than sorry- that was my parameters but it would be great to have something more concrete to go on.

Hi, I'm a Nursing and from New Jersey. I'm in my second semester and we had our clinical at a hospital yesterday. My patient, a 92 year old woman with a repaired hip fracture had a blood pressure of 130/45 and was due for Benazipril and Norvasc. I checked her last reading from her med. record and it was 139/43 2 1/2 hours earlier. My patient (who was awake, alert, and oriented) said she was concerned about receiving her blood pressure medication because her diastolic pressure was so low. I agreed it was low and said I would talk to my Nursing professor before I came back with the meds in case the dose needs to be withheld or reduced. My Nursing instructor then told me to "talk her into getting the medication." She said my job is to sell it to her. I then went to the patient's primary nurse and explained the situation to her. She contacted the Dr. who withheld the meds for the day and had us monitor her BP more frequently. My question is what is the guideline for withholding BP meds? I need to know so that if this happens again I'll be more sure of myself. I feel that if I had listened to my Nursing instructor the patient may have been in trouble.