title: Evaluation of pharmacy students' blood pressure and heart rate measurement skills after completion of a patient assessment course.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate pharmacy students' skills at measuring brachial artery blood pressure and radial heart rate at the completion of a patient assessment course in the second-professional year of a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program.
  
  
  METHODS
  Students enrolled in a required patient assessment laboratory course (n = 83) participated in this study. Each student was randomly matched with a classmate and manually measured the classmate's blood pressure by auscultation of the brachial artery and heart rate by palpation of the radial pulse.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The student-device absolute disagreement was 6.5 +/- 4.8 mmHg for systolic blood pressure (SBP), 6.2 +/- 4.5 mmHg for diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and 5.3 +/- 4.0 beats per minute (BPM) for heart rate. Student and machine measurements of SBP, DBP, and HR significantly correlated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pharmacy students in the second-professional year of a PharmD program demonstrated competence in but not mastery of manual blood pressure and heart rate measurement. These skills need further refinement during third- and fourth-professional year APPEs.
authors: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, School of Pharmacy, Amarillo, Texas 79106, USA. ken.mccall@ttuhsc.edu
authors: Kenneth L
authors: KL
authors: McCall
authors: Cynthia
authors: C
authors: Raehl
authors: Sherida
authors: S
authors: Nelson
authors: Krystal
authors: K
authors: Haase
authors: David S
authors: DS
authors: Fike
mesh_terms: D001794:Blood Pressure; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D004512:Education, Pharmacy / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D013339:Students, Pharmacy