Blood Pressure?

Question

Can anyone find any information on taking a BP. I'm in a nursing assistant course and I could use some tips/ procedure details.

Answer 1

Isn't your instructor going to teach you this? She or he should! But in the mean time, there are a few ways to take a blood pressure. The kind you'll use in practice is probably a standard blood pressure machine. It consists of a cuff that is placed around the upper arm. The left arm gives a better reading. Attached to this is a rubber tube and at one end, a bulb that fills with air that you will squeeze. What you're doing is pumping up the cuff with air by squeezing the bulb. You'll have a little guage with numbers on it. You'll want to pump it up to about 180 or so. On the pump is a little valve. Once the meter reads 180, you'll start to let the air out slowly. You'll see the needle fall from 180 on down. You'll also need to use a stethoscope. The hearing end goes in your ears. You'll place the flat part of the stethoscope a little under the cuff so that the head is placed in the crook of the inner arm. The person's palm should be facing up, not down. Place the stethoscope there before you begin pumping the air. Now when the needle starts descending, you'll listen for the heartbeat. When you hear the first "boomp" make mental note what number the needle was resting on at the time. This will be the systolic number. Now continue to listen to the needle going down. Eventually, you'll hear it fade off. Record the number it was on when you heard the last "boomp". The systolic number is the first "boomp" and is written first. The second "boomp" is the diastolic number, written under the systolic. But if your instructor is there to teach, you'll learn all this! Good luck.

Answer 2

What? Most places have automatic BP monitors.
I know you pump it up above a certain number and then release some slowly then listen for first beat...
Practice