# vital signs



## barbarion123 (May 11, 2011)

is there any body can help me with my vital sign that  are on the nremt


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## HotelCo (May 11, 2011)

barbarion123 said:


> is there any body can help me with my vital sign that  are on the nremt



Huh?


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## barbarion123 (May 11, 2011)

im trying to brush up on my vital signs for the 
 nremt


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## crazycajun (May 11, 2011)

barbarion123 said:


> im trying to brush up on my vital signs for the
> nremt



Are you not still in school? Should be something you are practicing.


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## HotelCo (May 11, 2011)

barbarion123 said:


> im trying to brush up on my vital signs for the
> nremt



You mean remember what they should be? Or how to take them?

Read your book in either case.


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## barbarion123 (May 11, 2011)

yes what they should be


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## HotelCo (May 11, 2011)

barbarion123 said:


> yes what they should be



Infant? Toddler? Adolescent? Adult? Geriatric?

Read your book.


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## bigbaldguy (May 11, 2011)

Repetition. Just go over them again and again until you have them down. Learn adult first as that will be the most common one you will come across on the NREMT.


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## boombox (May 12, 2011)

And which book did you use?

i used the Brady book
they have a chart in the vitals chapter for general numbers and another in the infant and children chapter that breaks down the numbers for all the under 18 groups.

other than that - practice! im spending extra ER and ride along hours just so i can get more practice.

GOOD LUCK!


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## korvus (May 25, 2011)

I never bothered to learn pediatric vitals...just remembered that HR & RR should be faster than an adult, and BP numbers are usually lower than an adult.  I can't remember if they came up on the test, but I did fine without knowing them.  I still just look them up if it's a kid.


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## AustinNative (May 25, 2011)

What book do you use?  I used Brady Prehospital Emergency Care, ninth edition.  Look on pages 322-325.  Pretty much covers it.  I made flash cards for each sub-set of patients.  Then it is repetition after repetition that gets them in the head. There are some tricks of the trade to help remember what to watch for, but learn the basic sets by heart, and all will be well.

Good luck!


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## Handsome Robb (May 26, 2011)

korvus said:


> I never bothered to learn pediatric vitals...just remembered that HR & RR should be faster than an adult, and BP numbers are usually lower than an adult.  I can't remember if they came up on the test, but I did fine without knowing them.  I still just look them up if it's a kid.



really...?


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## rwik123 (May 26, 2011)

Hoooorayyy and the sheer incompetence of people in our profession shines through! Can I cite the post about not memorizing vitals when EMTs wanna be recognized as "educated medical professionals"?


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## Symbolic (May 26, 2011)

You will notice that there will be a slight variation between the vital sign numbers between textbooks/online resources. Just go with whats in the textbook your being tested on and try to commit the basic vitals to memory: Adult, child, infant and Neonate. The textbooks usually break them down even more to (school age children, toddlers, etc..)

http://baldwinambulance.com/uploads/4.7_Normal_Vital_Signs_Guidelines_for_EMS.pdf


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## korvus (May 26, 2011)

NVRob said:


> really...?



Yeah, really.  And I don't remember there being any questions that required that knowledge on the NREMT I/85 test, though I could be mistaken.  

Here's why I didn't bother.  Symbolic's link shows the HR for a child 1-8 years old as 80-100 bpm.  My textbook says for 1-3 yr, 90-150 bpm; for 4-5 yr, 80-140 bpm; for 6-12 yr, 70-120 bpm.  Note that every one of those ranges in my book extend significantly beyond 80-100.  

If I were to trust one, it would be my book because having non-overlapping vital ranges is absurd (at midnight on day 28 does the HR really go from a range completely above 120 to a range completely below 120?), but the point is that these two references are so far apart that memorizing either seems like a waste of time.  If I see a 2 yr old with a HR of 140 bpm, is that 40 bpm too high or within the normal range?  

Looking at my field guide, it says normal HRs are (no ranges): 1 yr, 120; 3 yr, 110; 6 yr, 100; 8 yr, 90.  Those at least kinda match with the midpoints of what my book says, though I'm not sure how useful single numbers are, and once again the 1 and 3 yr numbers are outside what the PDF says are the ranges for ages 1-8...

What's the point of memorizing an arbitrary set of numbers if the numbers I pick to memorize make such a huge difference in my assessment of the patient?  If two EMTs can look at a patient and one thinks the HR is way high and the other thinks it is solidly normal, that's a problem in my book.  It would be a different issue if one book said 90-150 and another said 80-140; I could live with that.  But as different as the numbers actually are, I'd prefer to just have a general feel for where the numbers should be and not stress about the actual ranges...

Do others really think this is so negligent?


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## rogersam5 (May 29, 2011)

rwik123 said:


> Hoooorayyy and the sheer incompetence of people in our profession shines through! Can I cite the post about not memorizing vitals when EMTs wanna be recognized as "educated medical professionals"?



Hey now... I learned them... then forgot them... then relearned them... then forgot them... Seeing how I rarly see peds, I remember the basics on what I would expect when I took them (and thus would know if it was realllyy bad) but I have my quick referance for refreshing on the way.


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## Martyn (May 29, 2011)

There's an app for that...


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