This essay aims to provide a discussion of vital signs and how they are relevant to contemporary nursing practice. This is done by;
Gathering observations of patients is a vital task that all Nurses must complete on a regular basis, they include Blood pressure, respiration rate, pulse, temperature and oxygen saturation. The information gathered from the observations enable for warnings when a patient is deteriorating
In the medical field, knowledge is the number key or tool to take control of a patient throughout your shift because not every patient will have the same symptoms or illness as one another. Vital signs are a much needed skill to keep your patients alive without reading the wrong results or documenting the wrong results. Vital signs are determined if your heart is pumping enough blood and oxygen to your entire body. Vital signs include respirations, blood pressure, temperature, and pulse. During this essay, I’ll discuss the usual rate of pulse within different categories of age groups, locations and how to complete the skill of a pulse rate on a patient or a loved one.
This essay sets out to discuss the importance of comprehensive and accurate assessment on a registered nurses’ ability to make excellent clinical decisions. It will examine what factors can change a nurses’ capability to be aware of, and act on abnormal assessment findings. As well as assessment being part of the nursing process that is used in every day nursing, it is also a critical part of patient safety (Higgins, 2008). Assessment findings are used to determine what needs to be done for the patient next. Early warning scoring systems currently exist to aid in the early detection of patient deterioration (Goldhill, 2005). The rationale for the use of these systems is that early recognition of deterioration in the vital signs of a
2.7 Monitoring physiological measurements it´s important to make sure the individual health status and also necessary after surgery, as patients in intensive care units require continuous monitoring, and sometimes have medications that requires physical measurements taken. These are measurements we take to ensure that they are functioning in the way they are supposed to. When we carry out physiological measurements, such as measuring temperature, pulse and respiration, we are monitoring for signs of abnormality. Then be able to draw conclusions about the health status of the individual and any treatments they may
Within the nursing profession, the role becomes more of an observer for vital signs, listener, and carer.
While on Duty I received a call for a 67 year old female who had a temperature. No further information supplied call dispatch code 26-A-08
Nurses can review vital signs history for a patient to spot abnormalities and creating a baseline with a few clicks of a mouse and identify inconsistencies and changes in health quickly, which saves not only time but lives too when using nursing informatics. Opportunities in nursing care can be discussed with management and the nursing informatics team to better serve patients. There is a huge push to reduce costs in healthcare and nursing informatics helps save money while improving patient care. Various members of the healthcare team can now look at the same patient's chart at the same time at many healthcare facilities. Nursing informatics professionals look for ways to improve the patient experience so that redundancy and waste are removed, but they try to keep the nursing process in mind to avoid sacrificing the level of care provided. Most jobs in this field are in hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceutical and research companies, and healthcare consulting companies. The locations of available jobs are similar to those offered to a traditional nurse, but it is clear that this position is considered niche and the traditional nurse would have more job opportunities (“Johnson & Johnson Discover Nursing”, 2014).
Vital signs are a fundamental component of nursing care and indicate the body’s ability to maintain blood flow, regulate temperature and regulate oxygenate the body tissue. Taking vital signs are essential in revealing any sudden changes in the body, which could potentially indicate clinical deterioration of the patient.
These discoveries prompted change and allowed the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), to set standards to reduce unnecessary detriment to patients. Many tools were introduced to assist in the consistency and accuracy of observations of patients’ physiological conditions. ViEWS (VitalPac Early Warning Score) is a standardized and high-tech scoring system that helps recognize and respond to deteriorating patients. It is the basis of the newest warning system, appropriately named National Early Warning System or NEWS (Featherstone, Prytherch, Schmidt & Smith, 2010).
Furthermore, if a shift assessment is done poorly the data will display it and make it seem like there is a problem. Alarm fatigue is caused by poor data collection making patients seem to be crashing when they are fine (2017, p. 219). Using this weakness as a chance to reflect on how our facility is documenting is going to help with patient safety in the long run. It may be an issue now, however, if we wish for our patients to be falsely represented in the Paratrend we will become more careful with what we place on the chart. Within one month I have already seen two common errors in my charting, using this system I will improve my documentation overall. Using our small window of time effectively we have been working towards helping staff use this program to help with their day instead of pushing them to use
In health and social care recordings and use of measures are a vital signs for determine a patients state of health. This is so important which will decide the appropriate treatment a patient need and in which condition this patient health is at present. Nurses see the patient more than any other care provider. For that reason. Nurses are in the best position to observe the patient’s development, finding problems early and judge what care is needed to resolve the problem. The care provider always checks the charts and recordings before entering into the
The name of their electronic monitoring system is the VitalPAC. The VitalPAC allows nurses to plug in information about their patients easily onto an iPAD. This accurately records what time treatment was giving and what dosages were given. This method helps staff members do their jobs but also holds them accountable for their actions. With electronic monitoring a timestamp records exactly when a patient received treatment. Electronic monitoring records who the caregiver was taking care of the patient and where the treatment took place. The benefits of electronic monitoring are immeasurable. “We welcome technology that improves the care we can offer, but it will never replace the face-to-face contact that our patients value” (Downey, 2015). Oswestry Orthopaedic Hospital is the first orthopaedic provider to adopt the electronic system. The system replaces all paper charts and makes everything paperless which is beneficial to the facility keeping everything organized and taking up less space. Electronic file saving also reduces the loss of records in case of a fire or other natural disaster. VitalPAC is very helpful to nurses producing an observation chart automatically and calculating an early warning score. Calculating a warning score can be very time consuming if done manually. “Recording vital signs data regularly and accurately is central
Vital signs are measurements of the body’s most basic functions. They are very useful in detecting and monitoring medical problems. There are five main types of vital signs which are temperature, pulse, respiration, blood pressure, and pain. They can be measured in a medical setting, at home, at the site of a medical emergency, or elsewhere.
Monitoring of the vital signs should be closely monitored (pulse, blood pressure, respiration and pulse oximetry