title: Effectiveness of blood pressure educational and evaluation program for the improvement of measurement accuracy among nurses.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the procedure for measuring blood pressure (BP) among hospital nurses and to assess if a training program would improve technique and accuracy.
  
  
  METHODS
  160 nurses from Molinette Hospital were included in the study. The program was based upon theoretical and practical lessons. It was one day long and it was held by trained nurses and physicians who have practice in the Hypertension Unit. An evaluation of nurses' measuring technique and accuracy was performed before and after the program, by using a 9-item checklist. Moreover we calculated the differences between measured and effective BP values before and after the training program.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At baseline evaluation, we observed inadequate performance on some points of clinical BP measurement technique, specifically: only 10% of nurses inspected the arm diameter before placing the cuff, 4% measured BP in both arms, 80% placed the head of the stethoscope under the cuff, 43% did not remove all clothing that covered the location of cuff placement, did not have the patient seat comfortably with his legs uncrossed and with his back and arms supported. After the training we found a significant improvement in the technique for all items. We didn't observe any significant difference of measurement knowledge between nurses working in different settings such as medical or surgical departments.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Periodical education in BP measurement may be required, and this may significantly improve the technique and consequently the accuracy.
authors: Department of Medical Sciences, Division of Internal Medicine, Hypertension Unit, University of Torino, Via Genova 3, 10100 Torino, Italy.
authors: Franco
authors: F
authors: Rabbia
authors: Elisa
authors: E
authors: Testa
authors: Silvia
authors: S
authors: Rabbia
authors: Santina
authors: S
authors: Praticò
authors: Claudia
authors: C
authors: Colasanto
authors: Federica
authors: F
authors: Montersino
authors: Elena
authors: E
authors: Berra
authors: Michele
authors: M
authors: Covella
authors: Chiara
authors: C
authors: Fulcheri
authors: Silvia
authors: S
authors: Di Monaco
authors: Fabrizio
authors: F
authors: Buffolo
authors: Silvia
authors: S
authors: Totaro
authors: Franco
authors: F
authors: Veglio
mesh_terms: D001794:Blood Pressure; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D057189:Checklist; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D004506:Education, Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education*; D015588:Observer Variation; D056888:Patient Positioning; D019555:Physician-Nurse Relations; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015397:Program Evaluation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods
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