Counting Respirations

Some people are very obvious "belly breathers," in which case you can simply watch their abdomen rise and fall. This is the case with many of my patients, I can count respirations without needing to make contact. If the respirations aren't easily visible, I place the patients arm over their chest with my hand wrapped around their wrist to feel the rise and fall of their chest. The patient then believes you are taking their pulse. Sometimes the physical contact is calming as well to the patient...
 
EMSBLONDIE24 said:
Some people are very obvious "belly breathers," in which case you can simply watch their abdomen rise and fall. This is the case with many of my patients, I can count respirations without needing to make contact. If the respirations aren't easily visible, I place the patients arm over their chest with my hand wrapped around their wrist to feel the rise and fall of their chest. The patient then believes you are taking their pulse. Sometimes the physical contact is calming as well to the patient...
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Well put thats exactly what i do. its just something that works well for me but everyone does things differently and im always open for learning something new and different.
 
During my EMT clinical hours I made the mistake of staring at a patients bare chest while counting respirations. The second he noticed me doing so, he shot me the a very angry look, because he thought I was checking him out.

Nowadays I put a hand on their upper chest and tell them what I'm doing or try to get it with pulse... but I'm bad at multitasking.
 
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