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Vital Signs
Vital Signs
Vital Signs
BY SARA JOHN
Contents
Vital signs
Terms related to vital sign
Physiological concept of temperature, respiration and blood
pressure.
Principles and mechanisms for normal thermoregulation in
the body
Ways that affect heat production and heat loss in the body.
Types of body temperature according to its characteristics.
Sign and symptoms of fever
Contents
Normal ranges for temperature, pulse, respiration and
blood pressure.
Factors affecting temperature, pulse, respiration.
Characteristics of pulse and respiration.
Factors responsible for maintaining normal blood
pressure.
Various methods and sites used to measure T.P and B.P.
Recognize the signs of alert while taking TPR and B.P.
Vital signs
Vital Signs (VS) are the most important measurements you will
obtain when you evaluate or assess a client’s condition. Its
include:
Temperature, pulse, respiration, blood pressure (B/P) ,
oxygen saturation and pain.
They are the most frequent measurements taken by HCP.
(health care practitioner)
Shivering Conduction
Fever Evaporation
Heat production
Basal metabolic rate (BMR)
Is the rate of energy utilization in the body required to
maintain activities of daily living such as breathing.
Metabolic rate of the body decrease with age, so
generally the younger the person the higher the BMR.
Muscle activity :
stimulation:
These hormones also increase cellular metabolism hence
increase temperature.
Fever:
Radiation :
It is the transfer of heat from the surface of one object to
the surface of another object without contact between
two objects. Mostly in the form of infrared rays .e.g.
heat from the body of a semi-dressed person in a
room is almost 50% in the form of radiation.
Conduction :
Convection
It is the dispersion of heat by air currents. The body usually
has small amounts of warm air adjacent to it this warm air
rises and it is replaced by cooler air and that’s why people
always lose a small amount of heat through convection.
Evaporation
Normothermia /Euthermia
Hyperthermia /pyrexia
Hypothermia
Temperature Sites
(99.6ºF/37.6ºC)
Other sites include on the skin or in the blood.
Types of Thermometers
Electronic Thermometers
Measure temperature through a probe at the end of the device.
Hold as close as possible to the area where you wish to measure
the temperature. (2mint-30seconds)
Glass Thermometers
Mercury rises in a glass tube until its level matches the
temperature. (2-8mint)
Bulb shapes
Long tip – for oral use.
Disposable thermometer
It is a chemical thermometer. Color of chemical unit
changes to specific temperature. It takes about 60
seconds for accurate reading.
Tympanic thermometer
rectal Most reliable Unpleasant for clients, presence of stool may interfere with
measurement thermometer placement.
axillary Safest and most Thermometer must be left for a long period for accurate
Non –invasive measurement.
Tympanic Readily Can be uncomfortable , involves risk of injuring
membrane accessible and membranes .
reflects core
temp.very fast
Temporal Very fast Expensive
measurement
Clinical signs of Fever
C TO F F TO C
Formula
Put the formula
c/5=F-32/9
For example the body temperature is 37C For example body
37C=?F temperature is
37/5=F-32/9 100F
37X9/5=F-32
333/5=F-32 You can find the
66.6=F-32 C?
F-32=66.6
F=66.6+32
F=98.6
37C=98.6
.
Pain
Pain is highly unpleasant and very personal sensation
that cannot be shared with others. It can occupy all the
persons thinking, direct all the activities and change a
persons life.
It has been defined in another way as “an unpleasant
sensory and emotional experience associated with actual
and potential damage or described in terms of such
damage.
Process of pain
Physiology of pain
Transduction : pain stimuli is converted to electrical
energy . This electrical energy is known as transduction.
This stimulus sends an impulse across a peripheral
nerve fiber (nociception).
Transmission : A delta fibers send sharp, localized and
distinct sensations. C fibers relay impulses that are
poorly localized, burning and persistent pain. Pain
stimuli travel- spino thalamic tracts.
Physiology of pain
Perception : person is aware of pain – somatosensory
cortex identifies the location and intensity of pain
person unfolds a complex reaction –physiological and
behavioral responses is perceived.
Modulation : inhibitory neurotransmitters like
endogenous opioids work to hinder the pain
transmission. This inhibition of the pain impulse is
known as modulation .
Different theories of pain
Intensive theory
Specificity theory
Strong's theory of pain
Pattern theory
Central summation theory of pain
Sensory interaction theory
Gate control theory
Intensive theory
Intensive theory : This theory is based on Aristotle's
concept that pain resulted from excessive stimulation of
the sense of touch.
Specificity theory
Specificity theory is one of the first modern theories for
pain. It holds that specific pain receptors transmit signals
to a “pain center” in the brain that produces the
perception of pain.
Von Frey (1895) argues that the body has a separate
sensory system for perceiving pain- just as it does for
hearing and vision . This theory considers pain as an
independent sensation with specialized peripheral sensory
receptors (noci ceptors) which respond to damage and
send signals through pathways (along nerve fibers) in the
nervous system to target centers in the brain.
Strong's theory of pain
Strong investigated physical pain, particularly that felt
through the skin. He isolated pain from displeasure by
focusing on cutaneous pain, where the infliction of pain
carried no immediate threat, and therefore the emotional
response was removed. He proposed that pain was an
experience based on both the noxious stimulus and the
psychic reaction or displeasure provoked by the
sensation. Strong concluded that pain is the sensation :
the first sensation was the experience of heat and then
came the sensation of pain.
Pattern theory