Vital Signs

1
Vital Signs

• Medic Assistant Lesson II

2
Lesson Objectives

• Understand
• What vitals are and how to document them
• Learn How to
• Take Pulse Rate
• Take Respiration Rate
• Take Blood Pressure

3
What are vital signs?

• Outward signs of what is going on inside of the
  body
• Pulse
• Respirations
• Blood Pressure
• Skin Color
• Temperature
• Pupils

4
Pulse

• Heart pumps blood through blood vessels
• Blood passes through arteries in waves
• Surges of blood through the arteries can be felt
  as pulses
• The number of pulses felt in a minute is equal to
  the number of heart beats in a minute
• Two Components Rate and Quality
• RateBeats/min
• Quality How it feels strong, weak, thready

5
Pulse Locations

• Radial Pulse

• Carotid Pulse

• Brachial Pulse

6
Average Pulse Ranges

• Age Beats/min
• 14 60-100
• 11-14 60-105
• 6-10 70-110
• Newborn 120-160

7
Respirations

• Respiration The act of breathing
• Measured in breaths/min
• 2 actions inspiration and exhalation
• Inspiration breath in
• Exhalation breath out
• 1 breath 1 inspiration 1 exhalation

8
Respiration Components

• Rate and Quality (just like pulse)
• Rate Breaths/min
• Quality normal, shallow, labored, noisy

What do you think, normal?
9
Average Respiration Ranges
Age Breaths/min 14 12-20 11-14 12-2
0 6-10 15-30 Newborn 30-50
10
Blood Pressure

• Definition
• The force of blood against the walls of the
  blood vessels
• When the heart contracts and forces blood in the
  arteries Systolic Pressure
• When the heart is relaxed, the remaining
  pressures in the arteries Diastolic Pressure

11
Blood Pressure

• Presented in the form Systolic
• Diastolic
• Average Blood pressure 120/80

12
How to Take Blood Pressure

• Position the blood pressure cuff
• Arrow over brachial artery
• Put stethoscope properly into your ears
• Place the head of the stethoscope on the brachial
  artery, below the BP cuff
• Pump the BP cuff to 160 mmHG
• Slowly release pressure by turning value
  counterclockwise
• 1st sound heard systolic pressure
• Last sound heard diastolic pressure

13
Blood Pressure by Palpation

• Very similar to previous procedure, but no
  stethoscope is used
• Instead, place your hand on the radial pulse
• Pump BP cuff to 160 mmHG
• Slowly release the value
• First pulse felt Systolic pressure
• Diastolic pressure cannot be measured this way
• Documented (Systolic)/Palp.

14
Now its your turn.

• Take the pulse, respiration rate, blood pressure
  by auscultation (stethoscope), and blood pressure
  by palpation of 10 students.
• Put the values you obtain for these measurements
  in your practice PCRs