Friday, March 5, 2010

Required Areas of Care - Vital Signs

Vital Signs
  1. Complies with established guidelines
  2. Obtains accurate vital signs by:
    • Reading the instrument within a stated range of
      • +/- 2 degrees for temperature
    • Counting within a stated range of
      • +/- 5 beats for apical or radial pulse (+/- 10 beats/minute for apical pulse for a child under 2 years)
      • +/- 2 respirations/minute for adults (+/- 6 respirations for a child under 2 years)
    • Reading the instrument within a stated range of
      • +/-6 millimeters for blood presure
    • Obtaining an accurate weight, when assigned by:
      • balancing the scale
      • undressing the patient as neccessary
      • maintaining cleanliness of the scale
      • weighing within one percent (1%) of the correct weight
    • Obtaining oxygen saturation when assigned
    • Assessing the level of pain, when assigned, by:
      • Asking an adult patient to rate level of pain using a 0-10 scale or visual analog scale or
      • Asking a child 3 or older to rate level of pain using a 0-5 faces scale or age appropriate visula analog scale or
      • Using the FLACC pain assessment tool to rate level of pain for a child ranging in age 2 months to 3 years of age or
      • Observing behaviors indicative or pain in a patient unable to rate his or her pain (e.g. moaning, grimacing, clutching, restlessness)
  3. Records each of the assigned vital signs on PCS Recording  Form

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