Results from a  survey with 830 respondents conducted by the website nursingtimes.net suggests that many nurses are failing to monitor patient vital signs. Also, one of four nurses was not able to recognize adverse changes in the patients status.

According to the article, one reason as to why this is so, is because of the lack of use of early warning scores where a patient’s vital signs are measured and then turned into a score to reflect the stability of their condition. Reliance on technology like automated blood pressure recording is also said to be a probable cause since a large percentage of nurses responded that they are unable to identify signs of deterioration without the equipment. Another point is that nursing staff routinely taking the vital signs are not able to identify significant changes in patient’s vital signs that could indicate that their condition is deteriorating.

Vital signs are regarded as indicators of the patient’s overall status. However, the values collected are just numbers until they are interpreted and correlated to the patient’s status. The issue here is not the manner of how vital signs are taken. May it be electronically generated from a monitor or manually taken, results will mean nothing without the information put together and the judgement of the health provider on it, as said by Jamie Davis in his podcast episode on vital signs, “a single set of vital signs does not a stable patient make”.

There is no harm in delegating the task to nursing assistants, LPNs  or health workers on the floor other than nurses so they can work on work on other tasks requiring more of their professional expertise. Though they know how to take the values, they may not have enough skills to identify whether the patient is reaching a critical situation based on the values that they obtained. Because of this, it is very important that nurses check on the collected data to see if there are any indications of the patient’s condition worsening.

Last but not the least, nurses and students should always remember to go back to the basics of the nursing process. Upon collection of data (Assessment), use the information to identify problems if any (Diagnosis/Analysis). When the problem has been identified, set goals as to what should be the outcome after institution of measures (Planning). Identify necessary interventions to be done to met set goals (Implementation). Assess patient outcomes and see if goals have been met or not (Evaluation).

Observation skills are essential for nurses. Before anything else, assessment should first be done. If nurses have poor assessment skills then everything else will follow. Incompetence put both patients and professionals at risk so for nurses who might be having doubts about their basic skills, they should re-evaluate themselves and take steps to make them better health providers.

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For a good and comprehensive review on vital signs, check out these episodes of the Nursing Show.

Nursing Vital Signs Review and Episode 63

Vital Signs Part 2 and Episode 64