Part of Lesson Plan: Assessment Procedures

Activity Overview / Details

Teacher will lecture while demonstratring how to take a blood pressure.....Can also watch video attached

A blood pressure reading has two numbers: systolic and diastolic. The first is the systolic, which measures the peak pressure in the artery. The diastolic pressure measures the minimum pressure.  

A normal, healthy adult might have a blood pressure reading of 115/75. This means the systolic reading is 115 and the diastolic reading is 75.

The process for taking a blood pressure reading:

• Place cuff on arm, just above the elbow
• Place the flat round portion of the stethoscope over the center of the crease in the patient’s elbow
• Inflate the cuff to 200 psi
• Slowly let the air out. While the air is releasing, listen for the pulse to return.
• The first sound of the pulse is the systolic pressure. The normal range is from 106-122 for athletic individuals.
• When you can’t hear the pulse any longer, read the last number on the stethoscope. This is called the diastolic. The normal range of an athletic individual is 50-80.

Key things to remember whe it comes to blood pressure:

1. Check the size of the patient's arm. Using the wrong size BP Cuff will give you an innacurate reading. A few of the common sizess of BP Cuffs are Adult Normal, Adult X-Large, Adult Small, And pediatric,

2. Realize that a blood pressure does not have a set number. There is a normal range that is acceptable, yet different, for adults, children, and infants.  www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure

3. FInally remember that blood pressure will fluctuate throughout the day depending activity, caffeine intake, stress, and food intake (Salt will increase it drastically).

Laboratory  Next you will check your partner's blood pressure.