Eight Vital Signs

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"Critical care: the eight vital signs of patient monitoring" by Malcolm Elliott Introduction Vital signs are traditionally monitored by observing and assessing five physiological statistics of the patient which are pulse, temperature, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and respiratory rate. The monitoring of vital signs is an essential component of caring for all patients in order to detect procedural complications, identify early signs of clinical deterioration and determine appropriate treatment. Done over time, it helps to accurately assess the severity of an illness a patient may have and serves as a litmus test as to the urgency of intervention that is required. Changes in the vital signs of a patient provides objective evidence of the body’s response to physical and psychological stress or changes in physiological function. Vital signs vary by age and require the recording of a patient’s temperature, pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate (RR) and oxygen saturation. Summary This paper will place under the microscope the article “Critical care; the eight vital signs of patient monitoring” written by Malcolm Elliot & Alysia Coventry. The article describes the current standards and implies that it may not be sufficient. It proposes additional clinical issues that should be part of the standard routine when assessing the vital signs of patients. The additional assessments proposed are level of consciousness, urine output and pain. A range of ideas have come to the fore front the article and an attempt will be made to narrow the focus to three. These are the additional vital care methods being proposed, the importance of patient monitoring and safety. The authors of the article outlined various factors that need to be considered about the standard vital care signs now being used to detect clinical changes in patients considered high risk. The

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