Taking an accurate manual blood pressure . HELP

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Can someone please help me, I need to get an accurte blood pressure reading, I should be getting my systolic pressure reading from the very first pulse that I hear and the diastolic on the very last pulse heard . However when I am working with an instructor we dont get the same reading at when we are both listening at the same time . This has happened 2 times now and I am frustrated and afraid I will fail .

any tips or thoughts?

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

make sure you are letting the air out of the cuff slowly.

http://homepage.smc.edu/wissmann_paul/anatomy1/1bloodpressure.html - how to take a blood pressure

http://medicine.osu.edu/exam/ - from ohio state university college of medicine, an interactive guide to physical examination for 8 body systems and includes sounds. has an interactive blood pressure cuff (the link is toward the bottom of the page, "take a blood pressure") where you click on a blood pressure bulb to start the inflation of the cuff. you will then hear and watch the manometer and tell the program what the final blood pressure is. it re-cycles to give you lots of practice!

http://nursing.about.com/od/assessmentskills/ht/bloodpressure.htm - how to take a blood pressure

http://www.ktl.fi/publications/ehrm/product2/part_iii3.htm - blood pressure measurement where peak inflation level is determined first by palpating a radial pulse, inflating cuff and then determining the point at which the pulse is obliterated.

http://www.sweethaven.com/free-ed/healthcare/lessonmain.asp?cnum=1&icode=fra0204 - taking and monitoring vital signs. from sweethaven's health care.

https://allnurses.com/forums/f50/hearing-bps-177877.html - hearing bps

http://medinfo.ufl.edu/other/opeta/ - videos of physical examination procedures from the university of florida - there is a video on how to do vital signs, including the blood pressure, here.

http://www.med-ed.virginia.edu/courses/pom1/videos/index.cfm - videos of physical examination procedures from the university of virginia. there is a link to doing vital signs here as well.

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Specializes in critical care: trauma/oncology/burns.

Hello 2ac.

My goodness, your post brought back many memories of mine from nursing school, waaaay back in the day.

Okay, first: please try to take a deep breath. What I would suggest you do is: Ask your patient some questions. Do you have a history of high blood pressure? Do you remember what your last BP was?

Make sure you have selected the correct cuff for your patients arm.

If your patient denies a Hx of HTN, then maybe you could pump the BP cuff up to, say 14o mm Hg.

Have you tried asking your nursing instructor/professor for assistance/help? Contrary to popular belief/opinion, many nursing professors/instructors don't bite (well, maybe not in the beginning, smile)

Here is a website that might be of help to you. Please, I am in no way suggesting that your approach is the wrong way to take a BP. Just trying to help a fellow nurse

http://www.uams.edu/csc/programs/orientation/bloodPressure.htm

I guess what I am trying to say is....Some things take a bit more practice than others.

Let us know how it all works out for you.

Respectfully,

athena

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Specializes in critical care: trauma/oncology/burns.

Wow DaytoNite:

Cool website, the interactive one! (from Ohio State University). That's a keeper!

Thank you!

athena

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Specializes in Emergency.

Thanks for the links DaytoNite! I'm gonna learn alot of stuff from those links..

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