The Importance of Vital Signs in Contemporary Nursing Practice

The last week of classes for NURS1005 were a series of clinical skills activities. These activities refreshed the student’s minds on what they will be doing on placement and how to do it. We got assessed on three clinical skills; taking and recording vital signs, blood glucose levels and doing a urine analysis. I’ve chosen to reflect on taking vital signs and how I performed them. Reflection is a very important part of learning from experiences which is essential in nursing. Nursing practises continue to change and it is easier to go with and to add to that change if you are reflecting on your practise. This essentially makes nursing practises better for the patients. I have reflected on the process of how I took the vital signs during my clinical skills activities. I was very nervous but believe I performed them well due to how I was taught, what I have read and seen and the vital signs signified how my peer was acting which was healthy and within a normal range. Even though I felt I did them well, there were improvements that could and have happened since. Most of the improvements are minor in comparison to the strengths I have but it is important to recognise improvements when needed so you are giving the best and accurate care. I was aware of these improvements needed and tried to strengthen them during my clinical placement which helped me learn different ways of doing processes and also the rationale behind the processes.

Delivering quality care is the priority of the nursing profession as an institution and in order to facilitate this, data driven indicators are employed to measure how effective the care environment is. These nursing sensitive indicators include complications such as urinary tract infection, patient falls, surgical complications, length of hospital stay, restraint prevalence, incidences of failure to rescue, patient satisfaction, pressure ulcers and nursing satisfaction. In the case of Mr. J, the demented rabbi, who as a nurse supervisor I am responsible for, nursing sensitive indicators are crucial in monitoring the level of care and making adjustments so that the

Clinical data is vital signs; the patient's vital signs are taken by the healthcare professional either before or

The knowledge of nursing sensitive indicator can be helpful in providing the patient care which meets the quality and ethical standards. Nursing sensitive indicators rely on evidence to take patient care decisions (Patrician, 2010). According to Patrician (2010), Evidence Based Nursing is the use of personal expertise and research to take decisions on patient care. In case of Mr. J, there is a clear lack of evidence based nursing. Mr. J was kept in restraint without considering that Mr. J was not trying to get out of bed by himself. When the pressure ulcer was identified, the nurse

The four main vital signs taken at any doctor’s visits, emergency centers, or even at home are body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure. Measuring vital signs allows any professional to detect health issues or various medical problems and any person to be aware of his or her medical health.

Understanding Nursing Research: Building an Evidence-Based Practice shares with us that “ Physiological measures are measurement methods used to quantify the level of functioning of living beings. The precision, accuracy and error of physiological and biochemical measures tend not to be reported or are minimally covered in published studies” (Grove, Gray, & Burns, 2015, p. 292). Also our text shares with us that, “ Accuracy is comparable to validity in what it addresses the extent to which the instrument measures what it is supposed to measure in a study” (Grove, Gray, & Burns, 2015, p. 292). Precision “ is the degree of consistency or reproducibility of measurements made with physiological instruments” (Grove, Gray, & Burns, 2015, p. 292). Finally Error, “ in physiological measures can be grouped into the following five categories: environment, user, subject, equipment and interpretation” (Grove, Gray, & Burns, 2015, p. 293). They go on to share with us that “ researchers need to report the protocols followed or steps taken to prevent errors in their physiological and biochemical measures in their published studies” (Grove, Gray, & Burns, 2015, p.

Another nursing management is to monitor vital signs. Assess adequacy of cardiac output and tissue perfusion, noting significant variations in BP/pulse rate equality, respirations, changes in skin color, temperature, and level of consciousness. The rationale although not all dysrhythmias are life-threatening, immediate treatment may be required to terminate dysrhythmia in the presence of alterations in cardiac output and tissue perfusion (Vera, 2013).

Several studies have shown that severe in hospital adverse events, such as patient deterioration cardiac arrest, sudden blood pressure fall and unexpected death are frequently preceded by unmonitored/undocumented abnormal vital signs (McGain et al. 2008). Based on the article’s finding, patients who have undergone surgery are at higher risk of physiological deterioration or adverse events in hospital (McGain et al. 2008). It therefore seems reasonable that all patients who have had surgery be medically reviewed, and nursing review and measurement of vital signs be performed and documented frequently in each nursing shift (Farrell, M 2005). Accurate record keeping and careful documentation is an essential part of nursing practice (NSW Health 2012, p.2). However certain hospitals were significantly associated with incomplete documentation; nursing interventions and vital signs were more commonly un-documented in the evening for most patients, after successive postoperative ward day (McGain et al. 2008). Crisp and Taylor (2009) state that lack of nursing assessment, monitoring and documentation can attribute to the repetitive and time-consuming nature of the tasks and can cause more damage to a patient. The NSW Nurses Association (p.2, 2007) indicated that nurses are responsible for producing and

Adult Nursing is a challenging yet rewarding occupation whereby nurses are expected to perform to the highest standard possible to provide excellent care for a range of adults of all ages and health conditions. Nurses must follow a code of conduct provided by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to ensure a high level of care is maintained for the patients and their family’s satisfaction. The nurse must be able to show characteristics and qualities of a good nurse i.e. “as a nurse you are a listener, a manager and a knowledgeable skilled professional” (NHS Careers, 2015). Looking after a bedbound patient may be particulary challenging as you have to consider your patients needs which will require you to use all aspects of your nursing knowledge and skills. “You will also need to have the right values and behaviours to become a nurse. These are defined by the 6C’s: Care, Compassion, Competence, Communicaiton, Courage and Commitment” (NHS Careers, 2015).

Monitor vital signs Rational: medications and increased stress can cause alterations that the nurse should be aware of

According to Butts and Rich (2005), trust is essential to a healthy and respectful relationship. Once trust has been broken in a patient-nurse relationship, mistrust develops, making it difficult for the nurse to regain the patient's trust again (Butts & Rich, 2005). There must be an open relationship between the nurse and the patient so that there is open communication between them. To have open communication, the nurse needs to have a good rapport with the patient. The patient would not say anything how they feel, or what is on their mind, if they don’t trust the nurse. This trust also involves the actual nursing care, meaning the nurse’s medical knowledge. The goal of every medical staff, especially the nurses, is to prevent illness and treat those people who are ill. To be efficient and productive, nurses must then keep up to date with their medical knowledge. I believe that nurses must maintain current practices and delivery of patient care through continual research and

This data should be the most accurate date in our patient's chart, however, this data is inaccurate. Often times, nurses become busy with the other client's tasks and forget to take and record this information. The lapses in the can interfere with patient interventions, thus possibly causing harm to our clients. Monitoring and recording a patient's vital signs can alert the nurse that there may be clinical deterioration with the

Evidence suggests that when compared to the other vital signs RR is considered to be inferior, and is consequently irregularly charted or neglected all together (Cooper, Cant & Sparkes, 2012). The perception of blood pressure as a first indication of patient deterioration it more highly regarded, while time restraints, lack of expertise and lack of monitoring equipment are the source to blame for why RR is not measured correctly by a Registered Nurse (Mok et al; 2015). This puts a greater emphasis on why nurses need to have a great understanding of the implications of inaccurately measuring patients RR, especially as they can lead to an adverse

Many people are familiar with wearable push-button devices that can, for example, alert a caregiver in the event of a fall. But wearable technology can do much more than that. Today, healthcare providers are excited about the potential of wearable devices to monitor vital signs like blood pressure as well as early warning signs of more serious conditions like heart attack or infection.

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.