Vital Signs

Today in clinic we learned how to take vital signs on our patients. Vital signs include taking blood pressure, pulse, respiration's (breaths), and temperature. As hygienists we don't need to worry about taking temperature, unless our patient is running a fever. Then in that case we can't see the patient. Today was a pretty easy day in clinic for me because I already knew how to take vital signs. I was a CNA in high school so I had vitals drilled into my head at that point in time. I did learn that my vitals were WNL (within normal limits) and in fact they were a little low (which is alright!). 

I was also able to pass off my patient positioning, instrument grasp and fulcrum PE's today. It sure feels nice to be able to get all those out of the way! Now I can focus on Health History and the vital signs PE. I also learned a little about instrument positioning. As I was passing off my PE's my instructor gave me a few tips on how the explorer should be placed on the tooth. She said that the handle should be close to parallel with the long axis of the tooth. And depending on where you are in the mouth determines what side of the explorer you will use. This was very useful information and will be very helpful later in clinic and class.