Assessment of manual blood pressure and heart rate measurement skills of pharmacy students: a follow-up investigation.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the impact of a laboratory course on the manual blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) measurement skills of pharmacy students.


METHODS
After 1 lecture and 1 laboratory session on vital sign technique, pharmacy students enrolled in a patient assessment laboratory course were randomly paired with a classmate and manually measured the classmate's BP and HR. Within 2 minutes, the BP and HR were measured by an Omron 711-AC automatic monitor. The same assessment procedures with manual and automatic measurements were repeated near the end of the laboratory course. Student skills were also evaluated through direct observation by faculty members.


RESULTS
Student and machine measurements of systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and HR significantly correlated at the final assessment (r = 0.92, 0.83, and 0.91 respectively; p < 0.001 for each. The proportion of student and device values agreeing to within 5 units (mmHg and beats-per-minute) at baseline versus at the final assessment significantly improved from 38% to 67% for SBP, 51% to 77% for DBP, and 52% to 79% for HR (p < 0.001 for each). The percentage of students correctly performing all 13 AHA endorsed steps for BP measurement improved significantly from 4.6% to 75.6% (p < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Significant improvement and the attainment of competency in manual vital signs measurement were demonstrated by pharmacy students after 11 weeks of skill rehearsal in a laboratory course.
Elliott
Katherine E
KE
School of Pharmacy, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Amarillo, TX 79106, USA.
McCall
Kenneth L
KL
Fike
David S
DS
Polk
Jill
J
Raehl
Cynthia
C
D001794:Blood Pressure; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards; D003935:Diagnostic Techniques, Cardiovascular / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000592:standards; D004512:Education, Pharmacy / Q000592:standards; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008365:Manometry; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019722:Sphygmomanometers; D019023:Stethoscopes; D013339:Students, Pharmacy