Blood Pressure
Taking Blood Pressure is important no matter what you do for a living. Lets touch base on a few concepts.
Reading Blood Pressure
Blood pressure is written as a fraction. Simply put it is Systolic/Diastolic. For an adult you want your systolic to read between 100 to 139, and your diastolic to read between 60 and 80. If either set is over you are considered to be hypertensive, if it is lower you are considered to be hypotensive. However being lower can also be attributed to being in good shape. Some athletes run as low as 60 on the systolic.
What is Systolic Blood pressure?
Systolic pressure is the force that your heart puts on the arteries WHEN the heart beats.
What is Diastolic Blood Pressure?
Diastolic pressure is the force that your heart puts on the arteries IN BETWEEN heart beats.
Technique
The general technique for taking blood pressure manually includes placing the blood pressure cuff on the patient, finding the brachial artery, pumping up to the correct mm/g and listening for the systolic and diastolic heartbeats.
The blood pressure cuff is a little more complicated to put on than it initially appears to be. You want the cuff about 2 inches above the elbow, so that you have room to comfortably place your scope and listen. You also have to make sure the cuff is the correct size for the patient you are using it on, there should be a line indicating where the cuff should fasten and still be considered accurate. There should also be an arrow to show how the cuff should be placed, it is usually referencing towards a brachial artery.
The brachial artery is found on the inside of the arm(for the purposes of taking blood pressure, this is actually a very large artery. It is hard to find in the correct area to measure sometimes though.), slightly above your elbow. It will be easier to hear if you start from the midline of the arm and move the scope towards the patients torso, or from the midline of their arm towards their general midline. I have horrible hearing and can not hear it until I have the blood pressure cuff pumped up, so do not worry if you struggle at first. If you can not hear it, try and feel it.
The standard mmHg that you should pump the manual blood pressure cuff up to in Indiana is 160mmHg. This is done as the average pressure for systolic is Supposed to be 100 to 139. Some patients may have higher blood pressure. You are supposed to pump the manual cuff to 20mmHg higher than expected systolic pressure. However, if you are just starting out, I recommend trying out an automatic blood pressure cuff first. You do not want to potentially damage a patients arm.
The hardest part for myself is listening for the beats. (I struggle with hearing due to working in a factory for over 10 years. Which is why I opted to get a cardiology stethoscope from Littmann. I have posted a link in my recommendations for my favorite stethoscope.) The first beat you will hear after getting your manual blood pressure cuff to 20mmHg over what the patient systolic blood pressure runs, will be the systolic blood pressure. The last beat you hear, will be the diastolic. You will start hearing beats right before you get to the last beat, ignore these. You want to record the very last beat you hear.
Practicing taking blood pressure is important. I recommend buying a take-home automatic blood pressure cuff and testing your friends or colleagues before taking their blood pressure manually. A few key notes to make sure you get as accurate as possible each time are:
-Making sure colleague is sitting and relaxed for 15 minutes before taking a baseline.
-Making sure that legs are not crossed when taking a baseline or testing manually.
-Making sure that clothes are not covering arms when you are getting a baseline or checking manually (This can change the Blood pressure by at least 10mmHg)
-Making sure that colleague does not have to urinate.
-Hold arm at heart level to get the most accurate reading; for practicing purposes at the least hold the arm in the same position every time you check the blood pressure.
-Use the large part of the diaphragm on the stethoscope, and ensure it is opened properly, some stethoscopes will open to either side of the diaphragm (both sides are used for different reasons).
Equipment Needed
(and my affiliate Links)
Stethoscope- Littmann Cardiology IV -Super expensive, may help with
bad hearing
Stethoscope - General quality stethoscope.
