Vital Signs Review for Student Nurses (parts 1 & 2)

This sample nursing student study tip provides a comprehensive overview on a basic nursing skill, taking vital signs. This is just one of Nursing Top Student membership area's hundreds of nursing study tips and downloadable student nurse study aids.

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From Episode 63 and Episode 64 of the Nursing Show

Tip of the Week — Vital Signs Review (parts 1 and 2)

This week (and next) I’m going to just do a review of some things RNs and nursing students need to keep in mind when looking at vital signs. We’ll cover just some of the ranges of vital signs both for adults and for ways that we can keep in mind basic ranges for pediatric patients. But I’m also going to be talking a little bit about some of the things you need to keep in mind with regards to trending, with regards to understanding medical history and medication, and applying that information as a nurse in how you look at a patient’s vital signs.

Vital Signs Reviewed Here

We’re going to cover six things as our look at vital signs. Now, there are first of all the big three: pulse, respirations and blood pressure. Those are the vital signs you’re probably taking most often. And then there’s the small three, or the last three, and depending on your situation and your location you may be using some or all of these in your assessment all of the time or you may be using them on occasion use basis, and this includes temperature, pulse-ox, and pain.

A lot of nurses and instructors will say pain should be in there all the time. I use pain assessment as part of my regular vital signs check and a lot of facilities are going that way. But if you have a patient who’s not complaining of pain, they’re not seeing you for anything about pain, you ask them about pain once in an earlier vital signs check; it may not be something that’s absolutely necessary every single time you go in and check vitals.

But we’re going to talk a little bit about each part of the vital signs and a little bit about how you assess it and what normal ranges are. And then we’ll move forward into the next one.

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MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia: Vital signs