Blood pressure cuffs - tip of the day!

Cathy shares our tip of the day regarding blood pressure cuffs. She explains the implications of using a cuff that is too large or too small.

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[A_Psych_Nurse]

Great video--I was skeptical of blood pressure readings changing based upon cuff size when I heard about it in nursing school, then confirmed it multiple times w/ numerous students and using different sized cuffs, then was surprised to see in clinicals how often a mis-sized cuff is used on med-surge patients, and then thought, "man, people are getting blood pressure medication based off these results!"

Another fun thing to try is to flex your bicep during the reading. . .when we did this we could get around 10-20+ points on the systolic number.

[bbygrlpt]

Thank you! I bought a blod pressure machine for my mom but idk why sometimes Iget 140 and others 120s in the same day or every other day

[LK-pbno]

I need a large one but why does it hurt when my arm gets squeezed and it’s 99% of the time. Are the doctors doing it too tight to begin with? It’s painful before half of the cuff has even expanded so you can imagine when it’s fully expanded and this would definitely put my blood pressure up because I’m in excruciating pain.

[dianefaust]

If I continue to squeeze the bp cuff till the patients veins are all popped out are red, can I hurt the person? Happened to me. Now having trouble, to breath

[mio]

any tips on cleaning the sphygmo cuffs?

[رِينا-وه]

The nurse squeezed the cuff while the BP device was on trying to hold it in its place and not to unfold. Is that wrong?

[glowilk]

An over bearing paramedic said to me-A basic EMT- once that automated BP cuff was “illegal “. Yes, those words. 🤣

[JP-vxsr]

Ok but his do you know of it's too big