Exhibit: Measuring and Recording Vital Signs

Benchmark: Academic

Skill: Top Four Pieces of Work

 

            In the healthcare field is important to be able to record and measure vital signs. Vital signs include respirations, temperature, blood pressure, and also apical pulse rate. Taking vital signs is something that every healthcare professional should know how to do so you are able to detect abnormalities in a patients breathing, blood pressure and pulse rates. In this specific piece of work I showed that I know what to look for in vital signs.

            There are several ways to take vital signs. For example, a patient’s temperature can be taken orally, axillary (armpit), tympanic (ear), or rectally which is most accurate, but often only taken on babies and infants.  A high temperature can indicate that a patient is febrile and a low temperature can indicate hypothermia. Blood pressure is a vital sign that can indicate many different issues. The normal blood pressure is 120/80. These numbers are separated into systolic and diastolic. If a patient has high blood pressure that will indicate that the patient is at risk for diabetes. 29.1 million people in the United States currently have diabetes. Diabetes is a metabolic disease in which the body’s inability to produce any or enough insulin causes elevated levels of glucose in the blood. Insulin is a hormone that is made in the pancreas that helps move glucose from the body into cells so that they have energy for activities such as exercise.  Type 2 diabetes is a disorder in which the body does not produce enough insulin or the cells ignore the insulin. With type 1 diabetes the body’s immune system destroys the cells that release insulin eventually eliminating the production of insulin. Type 1 is juvenile on-set and type 2 is adult on-set. Being able to recognize a patient’s high blood pressure is important because it affects other health aspects and also if a patient is unaware, they cannot take steps that are necessary such as taking their blood sugar or injecting insulin.

            As a health student in college being able to take vital signs will be important because they are considered base knowledge. As a dentist, it is important to know these signs because a patient during a procedure could go into cardiac arrest and it is important to know the indications of that such as you notice a patient is sweating. I will be not only expected to reflect dental health, my main should concern will be my patients overall health also.