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VITAL SIGNS
EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIAN - BASIC
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Vital Signs• Vital signs are an outward clue to what
is going on in the patient’s body
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Vital Signs• Baseline Vital Signs provide a basis for
comparison of later sets of VitalSigns
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Vital Signs• It is important to monitor “trends” in
Vital Signs rather than individual sets of Vital Signs
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Pulse• Pulse Points
Carotid
Brachial
Radial
Femoral
Popliteal
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Pulse• Pulse Points
Dorsal Pedal
Posterior Tibial
(Posterior and slightly inferior to medial Malleolus)
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Pulse• Rate
–Adult• 60-80 Beats/minute
–Child• 80-110 Beats/minute
–Infant• 120-150 Beats/minute
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Pulse–Rhythm
• Regular
• Irregular
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Pulse–Quality
• Full
• Weak (Thready)
• Bounding
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Respirations• Rate
–Adult• 12-24 Resp/min
–Child• 20-28 Resp/min
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Respirations
• Rate–Infant
• 30-70 Resp/min @ birth
• 30 Resp/min @ 6 months
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Respirations
–Rhythm• Regular
• Irregular
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Respiration–Quality
• Full
• Deep
• Shallow
• Labored
• Noisy
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Blood Pressure• Systolic - Pressure on the arterial wall when
the heart contracts
• Diastolic - Pressure on the arterial wall when the heart is at rest
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Blood Pressure• Auscultated BP - Listening for both the
systolic and diastolic values
• Palpated BP - Feeling for the systolic pressure
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Auscultated Blood Pressure
• Adult–Male
100+ Age (up to 50)
80
–Female90 + Age (up to 50
80
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Auscultated Blood Pressure
• Child94 - 100
56 - 64
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Auscultated Blood Pressure
• Infant–At Birth
60 - 80
40 - 76
–At 6 Months 90 40-76
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Estimating Blood Pressure
• Radial Pulse Present? – >80 Systolic
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Estimating Blood Pressure
• Femoral Pulse Present?– >70 Systolic
– <80 Systolic
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Estimating Blood Pressure
• Carotid Pulse Present?– >60 Systolic
– <70 Systolic
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Vital Signs
• DO NOT TREAT NUMBERS - - - - - - TREAT PEOPLE!!!!
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