Respirations

[emtdennis]

One of the hardest vitals to get!!

If I can't see much chest rise due to clothing, I may casually/ lightly rest my hand on the pts clavicle. I do this while I am listening for chest sounds or other vitals. If the pt is distracted between me and my partner, they are not paying attention to the back of your wrist on their clavicle. Still use SpO2 in combination, just to give idea how things are going. Respiration is one of the vitals the hosp asks for when we do a call-in.

[Kiwiology]

As has been indicated earlier, respiratory rate is an often missed vital sign that can be a subtle indicator of a patient who is very unwell (the same goes for temperature) however I have seen this is not routinely done in my experience including in hospital

There is benefit to recording respiratory rate in all patients at least initially and then continuing to do so in those patients where clinical judgement indicates it may be helpful

[AnthonyM83]

The question posed at the beginning of the threat was dedicated to repiratory rates, though, and that`s what krumel meant, I think.

But then his statement would be almost pointless, since you're never going to look at respiratory rates just by itself. Might as well throw out pulse quality. If you were to look at it just by itself, it's not very useful (some patients naturally have weak pulses...doesn't mean anything bad). But because the pulse quality by itself doesn't tell us much, we don't then imply that it's a useless sign.

[paemt33]

But then his statement would be almost pointless, since you're never going to look at respiratory rates just by itself. Might as well throw out pulse quality. If you were to look at it just by itself, it's not very useful (some patients naturally have weak pulses...doesn't mean anything bad). But because the pulse quality by itself doesn't tell us much, we don't then imply that it's a useless sign.

very well said ! doctors look at every piece to create the whole puzzle why shouldnt we? it could be that one little thing that we DONT look at that could be the cause and by not looking into it we arent taking care of our patients