Why do vital signs every 4 hours

The hospitalist uses standard admission orders, encourages him to elevate his leg above his heart, starts intravenous antibiotics, and monitors him throughout the day and night with regular vital signs. However, the nurse notes that the patient did not sleep well and has not slept since his 4 am vitals were taken.

Now a lethargic and confused patient, the team adds delirium to his problem list. General medicine floors commonly default frequency for measuring vital signs to every 4 hours Q4 , a practice that dates back more than a century to the time of Florence Nightingale. This custom remains in place to ensure the ability to identify and intervene for those at risk for clinical deterioration and preventable death.

Research supports the notion that frequent and consistent vital sign checks can minimize mortality and morbidity in the hospital. In fact, validated scoring systems incorporate vital signs with other clinical findings as a way of quickly identifying a patient with worsening clinical status.

Research thus far has not focused on the necessity of vital sign checks every 4 hours throughout the night, despite affecting almost every hospitalized patient. Further, patient acuity or need for monitoring does not drive the frequency of overnight vital signs; instead habit and defaults do. Page Moldenhauer, M.

National Commission on Correctional Health Care. Chicago, IL. Puerini, M. Storm-Versloot, M. A, Vermeulen, H. Journal of Nursing Scholarship 46 1 Like Like. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Expert recommendations applied to correctional health care are to take vital signs as follows: Ambulatory care : At the time health care attention is sought for non-emergent health care concerns.

If abnormal, daily thereafter until stable or referred to another level of care. Emergency care : At the time health care attention is sought for an urgent or emergent health care concern.

If abnormal, every 15 minutes until stable or referred to another level of care. The most common vitals checked are body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, respiration, and height and weight.

Irregular body temperature is an early sign of an infection. Even if you feel fine, ensure you are maintaining a healthy body temperature by checking your vitals. Abnormal fluctuations in body temperature are cause for concern. A normal body temperature is Age, gender, weight, the surrounding temperature, and overall health impact body temperature.

The hypothalamus is a region of your brain that adjusts body temperature. When there is a virus in your body, your immune system sends signals to the hypothalamus to increase body temperature and weaken the infection. Sweating, clamminess, and other disruptions to your body temperature are early signs that your body is fighting off a virus. Monitoring body temperature allows you to take preventive measures to detect problems and prevent spreading an illness to others.

Blood pressure measures the force in which blood is pushed against artery walls when your heart contracts and relaxes. Monitoring blood pressure allows you to assess heart health. Two numbers are recorded when measuring blood pressure. The higher number displays the pressure inside the artery when the heart pumps blood to the body. The lower number represents artery pressure when the heart is at rest. When these numbers are too high, the arteries have a difficult time resisting blood flow, which makes the heart work extra hard.

Abnormal blood pressure signals underlying problems like heart disease and can lead to a medical emergency like a stroke. Keeping an eye on your blood pressure can determine if you need to make lifestyle adjustments or require medicinal treatment.

Your heart rate is a snapshot of your fitness level, emotional wellbeing, and heart health. High temperatures in the body can indicate disease or illness. A fever is a body temperature greater than Hyperpyrexia is a body temperature greater than A body temperature greater than Hypothermia is a body temperature less than 97 degrees Fahrenheit. Blood pressure is the measurement of the pressure of the blood in an artery as it is forced against the artery walls.

The highest level during contraction is recorded as the systolic pressure. As the heart pauses briefly to rest and refill, the arterial pressure drops. This drop is recorded as the diastolic pressure. The medical assistant checks this vital sign with a blood pressure cuff, the blood pressure is written as a fraction.

The systolic pressure over the diastolic pressure. A medical assistant should consider important factors that can increase or decrease blood pressure when checking vital signs. These factors include age, gender, diurnal variations, emotional states, exercise, body position and medication taken. The aorta must expand because it already has blood and must make room for the new blood.

This creates a pulse wave through the walls of the arterial system. The heart rate is measured by counting the number of pulses per minute bpm. The types of pulse a medical assistant must master include radial pulse, apical pulse, brachial pulse, ulnar pulse, temporal pulse, carotid, femoral pulse, popliteal pulse, posterior tibial pulse and dorsalis pedis pulse.