When I was a tech, I worked in a facility that did not have access to dynamaps on the MS floor, and we did VS manually...ALL of them. But it seems that the techs at the facilities that have been at, are physically and or mentally incapable of taking a manual BP. They have little tiff fights over who gets to use the dynamap first.
If the machine cannot get a reading, they keep trying to again until it does. And if it just will not read, they are completely mystified as to what to do.(a clue...if the patient has Afib or an arrythmia..the machine may not be able to read or may give an incorrect reading)
They get a totally absurd result but don't recheck it manually.
They spend 30 minutes trying to find the dynamap....they could have been finished with vitals if they did them manually by the time that they find it.
I have given up on the "I need a set of VS, stat."..because they would go running for the machine..it is faster to do it myself.
The other night of my patients needed to be on the dynamap for two hours as he was having serious issues. I ask the tech for a set of VS on another patient getting blood. I find that he didn't do it...because he couldn't find the machine. Of course, he didn't let me know either. Thankfully, both patients were fine.
Really, how hard is it to do a manual BP? Especially when EVERY single room has access to the equipment.
