English II/2019

Handout 1.1

UNIT 1:

MONITORING THE PATIENT

I. Match each vital sign with its definition.

1. pulse
a. How many times a person breathes per minute
2. blood pressure
b. The force with which blood travels round the body
3. respiration rate
c. The tactile arterial palpation of the heartbeat by fingertips.
4. oxygen saturation
d. It is the measurement of the internal body heat.
5. heart rate
e. The force that is produced on the arteries when your heart
6. temperature
beats.
7. systolic blood pressure
f. How many times the heart beats per minute
8. diastolic blood pressure
g. The force that is produced on the arteries between heartbeats
when the heart is in a period of relaxation and dilatation.
h. The degree to which the haemoglobin contained in the red
blood cells has adhered to oxygen molecules.

VIDEO: VITAL SIGNS

I. Before you watch the video, work with a partner try to answer and research about
the following questions.

1. Complete this chart

What are the normal ranges What are their units of

of these vital signs in adults? measurement ?

blood pressure
respiration rate
oxygen saturation
heart rate
temperature

2. What conditions should exist to take a correct measurement of the vital signs in a non-
emergency situation?
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________

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 English II/2019

3. Choose the correct choice.

 In an emergency, this vital sign should be checked first:

A) respiration
B) temperature
C) heart rate
D) blood pressure

 Vital signs indicate the current _____ functioning of the body.

A) emotional
B) neurological
C) physical
D) gastric

I. Label the pictures of medical equipment with the words in the box. What is each piece of
equipment used to measure?

Listen to the short conversations and write down the statistics of each vital sign and
identify if they’re normal or not.

Patient’s statistics Are they normal or

abnormal?
heart rate
rate of respiration
blood pressure
temperature

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 English II/2019

Handout 1.2

Reading the vital signs

I. In the following chart you can see the statistics of the
different vital signs of a patient. Discuss with your partner
the what these abbreviations mean. Then match the
abbreviations with the numbers in the chart.

RR T O2 sats P Wt BP

II. Complete the descriptions of the vital sign with the information of the chart.

1. BP is _________________ _________ eighty.

2. Resps are ___________ fifteen ___________ _____________ _______________.
3. The 02 stats are _______________ ______________.
4. Temperature is ____________________________.
5. Pulse is ________________ _______________ _______________.

III. Listen to a reading with some mistakes in it. Correct the mistakes you hear.

IV. Work with a partner. One of you will be student A, the other will be Student B. Complete
this empty chart with the information that your partner will give to you.
The teacher will give to your partner the information he has to read to you. At the end, discuss if
the vital signs of the patients are normal or not.