The obsolete measurement of pulse deficit by nurses.
Measurement of the pulse deficit, the discrepancy between the pulse rate which can be felt at the wrist and actual ventricular contraction, is a common nursing observation. However, this procedure is time-consuming, usually needing to be carried out by two nurses at the same time. How useful this measurement is and whether nurses know why they are carrying it out is questioned in this paper.
Pauline
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D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011674:Pulse; D015203:Reproducibility of Results