What are the common errors in blood pressure taking?

Question

What are the common errors in blood pressure taking?

Answer 1

Equipment related issues: (1) Chosing the wrong size of cuff for a patient -- children need BP cuffs that are proportional for their size; obese patients need larger cuffs in order to get accurate readings. (2) applying the cuff to loosely or too tightly. You should be able to fit two fingers snugly under the cuff once it is applied.

Technique Issues: (1) Pressing the stethescope too tightly in the artery will cause it to slightly compress and couuld obscure the onset and ending of the sounds. You can experiment with a stethescope and produce the BP sounds by pressing the stethescope over the artery. (2) Deflating the cuff too slowly or too quickly. The former will cause blood to back up and will obscure the diastolic reading. The latter could cause inaccuracy as the dial zooms down and you are unable to accurately assign a number to the sound's beginning and end.

A lot of people measure BPs incorrectly. It does take some practice and hopefully some supervision by someone who is expert.

Answer 2

If done manually with a stethoscope and a cuff:

Putting your fingers on the bell of the stethoscope can throw it off.

Once you start pumping don't stop before you reach the number you want it to get to, say 200, don't stop at 140 and then start pumping more.

Listen to every beat. Dont let your mind play tricks on you.

Answer 3

Relying on the machines.  As a cancer patient, I am in the hospital a lot.  No one takes manual bp's anymore, they are all done with those lil machines that also have a pulsox and thermometer.  

Anyways, a couple weeks ago, the machine was saying my bp was crazy high.  It wasnt that high and I knew it.  I know my body and how it feels if it were really that high.  No one wanted to listen, and just kept coming back with diff machines.  Finally, I was like 'Does nobody here know how to do a manual bp?'  

So they finally decided to do a manual.  The cuff and pump in the room didnt work, so they had to go track one down.  The first nurse that took it couldnt find it all.  The second one got it after 3 times, and it was normal, not the crazy high that the machine was showing.  It was odd that 2 diff machines showed crazy high numbers, and they were of the mind that 2 machines said about the same thing.  But I know my body.

They had a couple others verify the normal reading manually.

But I was just sitting there going.....  I cant believe no one knows how to do this.

The machines will give inaccurate readings if the batteries are low.  It is always best to plug them in when you are taking a bp, even if its fully charged.