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Medical patient assessment
Patient Assessment
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The Patients assessment tool is the equipment, which are used to treat the patients either outdoors or inside hospital or in any medical centers. An Electrocardiogram (ECG) monitor is a simple diagnostic test to tell about the heartbeat by placing some electrodes on our body. ECG monitor also provide all the heart related problems and the functioning of heart. An ECG monitor is a simple painless noninvasive test that can be performed in virtually any clinic, doctor office or medical facility.
From ECG monitor it is possible to determine whether our rhythm is normal or abnormal. Abnormal rhythm includes slow rhythms (Brady cardiac), fast rhythms (tachycardia’s) and heart block. In addition, the ECG monitor can show the effects of electrolyte (normal or abnormal blood chemistry) and medications on the heart.(cohen 2010)
A doctor may recommended an ECG monitor for patients because of their symptoms or who may be risk of heart disease because there might be family history of heart disease or they smoke, overweight, have diabetes, high cholesterol or high blood pressure.(Better health 2013)
. Some Health problem which ECG Monitor used to diagnosed are shape of heart, heart functioning, blood supply to the heart, positioning of the heart, cardiac arrest of heart, balancing of electrolyte in the heart, check the blood arteries, irregular and abnormal heart beats. (Royal Melbourne Hospital - Department of Cardiology )
ECG is performed by attaching 12 lead ECG Electrodes to Patients. It will print a copy of the rhythm strip. After the completion a paramedic or ECG technician normally perform this simple painless investigation by placing electrodes in patients chest, wrist and ankles. This records the electrical activity of the...
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...lth of patients who have been diagnosed with cardiac problem, to help assess artificial cardiac pacemaker or to monitor the certain medication to the heart. (Royal Melbourne Hospital - Department of Cardiology page 3)
. The 3 major Type of ECG are:-
. 1) Resting ECG:- Patients lies down and there is no movement allowed during this time, here the impulse generated by our muscles can interfere the impulse generated by our heart. This method can takes five to ten minutes.
. 2) Ambulatory ECG:- This ECG is recorded by a portable recording device which is worn for at least 24 hours. Patients can move freely when monitor is fitted on there body. Patient’s recovery from heart disease will experience this type of ECG.
. 3) Cardiac arrest Test:- This type of ECG is performed for a patient ride on the exercise bike or walk on trade mill which takes15-20 minutes to complete.
There are several different heart problems that show up as an abnormal EKG reading. For example, a heart block can occur when there is a delay in the signals coming from the SA node, AV node, or the Purkinje fibers. However, clinically the term heart block is used to refer to an AV block. This delays or completely stops communication between the atria and the ventricles. AV block is shown on the EKG as a delayed or prolonged PR interval. The P wave represents the activity in the atria, and the QRS complex represents ventricular activity. This is why the PR interval shows the signal delay from the AV node. There are three degrees of severity, and if the delay is greater than .2 seconds it is classified as first degree. Second degree is classified by several regularly spaced P waves before each QRS complex. Third degree can be shown by P waves that have no spacing relationship to the QRS complex. Another type of blockage is bundle branch block. This is caused by a blockage in the bundle of His, creating a delay in the electrical signals traveling down the bundle branches to reach the ventricles. This results in a slowed heart beat, or brachycardia. On an EKG reading this is shown as a prolonged QRS complex. A normal QRS is about .8-.12 seconds, and anything longer is considered bundle branch block. Another type of abnormal EKG reading is atrial fibrillation, when the atria contracts very quickly. On the EKG this is shown by no clear P waves, only many small fibrillating waves, and no PR interval to measure. This results in a rapid and irregular heartbeat. On the other hand, ventricular fibrillation is much more serious and can cause sudden death if not treated by electrical defibrillation.
In this lab, I took two recordings of my heart using an electrocardiogram. An electrocardiogram, EKG pg. 628 Y and pg. 688 D, is a recording of the heart's electrical impulses, action potentials, going through the heart. The different phases of the EKG are referred to as waves; the P wave, QRS Complex, and the T wave. These waves each signify the different things that are occurring in the heart. For example, the P wave occurs when the sinoatrial (SA) node, aka the pacemaker, fires an action potential. This causes the atria, which is currently full of blood, to depolarize and to contract, aka atrial systole. The signal travels from the SA node to the atrioventricular (AV) node during the P-Q segment of the EKG. The AV node purposefully delays
First of all we need to understand the type of technology this device represents. Is this a sustaining innovation? Or is this a completely new disruptive product? After fully understanding this aspect we can make better decisions regarding the future of the firm and its product. This device offers many benefits that current products do not. As explained earlier, this device is extremely portable, offering emergency rooms the flexibility and convenience they seek to provide patients with the best treatment possible. Likewise, this product will come in at a price point much lower than current echocardiographies, further separ...
During a physical examination, a specialist may hear a heart murmur which will prompt a referral to a pediatric cardiologist for an analysis. Diagnostic testing will vary by the child’s age, clinical condition, and institutional preferences. Such test may incorporate a chest X-ray, electrocardiogram, echocardiography and cardiac catheterization. A chest X-ray uses unseen X-ray beams to cr...
The two assessment tools chosen are the 12 lead ECG and blood tests. The 12 lead ECG provides more detailed views and angles of the hearts electrical activity in both horizontal and frontal planes. The 12 lead has 6 limb leads and the other 6 for chest leads (Phalen & Aehlert, 2006).
...elth also reduces hospital readmissions by 14% and emergency room visits by 20% (pg42, para 5). This nurse has a family member with a pacemaker monitoring system. She can tell it helps make these patients feel more in touch with their providers and gives them a sense of safety also. She believes this is especially true when it comes to the elderly who don’t get out as much.
Oxygen is vital to a beating, healthy heart because it is needed to perform cellular respiration in order to pump the blood. When there is no oxygen being transported to the heart, the heart cannot pump blood, and eventually after being inactive, the heart tissue dies . This results in a heart attack. Heart attacks can be diagnosed before it is too late. One method of diagnosis is through a blood test. Blood tests are capable of sorting through the material found in blood, and if heart cell contents are found in the specimen, a heart attack can be diagnosed. If the levels of the cell contents are higher, this signifies that the heart attack is more severe. Another method of diagnosis is an electrocardiogram (ECG). An ECG measures the rhythm of the heart in order to detect defects. There are many other strategies that are used by doctors in order to diagnose a heart attack, such as chest x-rays, stress tests, tilt table tests, and echocardiograms, to name a few. A myocardial biopsy involves looking at the heart cells, and is accomplished by collecting a sample of heart cells from the patient. If the results are positive, a heart attack is diagnosed. A heart MRI involves looking at images of the heart in order to detect heart failure. The doctor uses the images to look for disorders in the structure of the
Stopwatch in combination with the hand in order to check for pulse and heart rate. This was very complicated to do because at some point the heart rate was very fast and very difficult to count the number of heartbeats.
...nt for early detection of different diseases. Although they have been somewhat effective in the past, they need to be updated and improved so a wider range of diseases can be detected. Among these checkups, an emphasis should be made on checking for congenital heart defects, especially those who are hard to detect. This should be a priority because a baby with a CCHD could be at risk in the future. Furthermore, children who have a heart disease such as Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome are at greater risk. In these cases, early detection is key for eliminating this types of conditions. This way an appropriate treatment can be given at a younger age and a more permanent solution can be offered to eliminate the condition such as surgery. If the root of these types of diseases can be eliminated now, future generations can have a better healthy life quality and assurance.
Due to the fact that we thrive in a prevalent world of technological advances significantly more convenient machines have been granted. Furthermore, the diagnostic tests that can be done to evaluate heart function are:
... such as the EKG. Not only can the parent be informed of any ailments, but the doctor can better prepare, and inform the parent of ways to possibly fix the underlying ailment. EKG machines are an excellent advancement of our time and will aid to countless discoveries in the medical field.
The ECG has had a huge impact on society in many ways. Among the most beneficial is that the data collected can be extrapolated to predict heart disease in an individual and thus lead the individual to alter their lifestyle, whether by taking medication or changing diet and exercise routine (3). This is increasingly relevant with the rising number of healthy, young athletes dying from sudden cardiac arrest after showing no previous symptoms (5). With the data collected by the electrocardiogram, this can be predicted and thus save lives. One harmful effect of the ECG is that the data is not always reliable; sometimes the data will find false-positive evidence of heart disease or a heart attack when there is none, and in other cases, the device isn’t consistently able to predict heart disease in people without a high risk of having heart problems (1). Overall, however the ECG is a device that ultimately will benefit people and reduce the number of lives taken by heart
Cardiac dysrhythmias come in different degrees of severity. There are heart conditions that you are able to live with and manage on a daily basis and those that require immediate attention. Atrial Fibrillation is one of the more frequently seen types of dysrhythmias (NIH, 2011). The best way to diagnosis a heart condition is by reading a cardiac strip (Ignatavicius &Workman, 2013). Cardiac strips play an chief part in the nursing world allowing the nurse and other trained medical professionals to interpret what the heart is doing. In a normal strip, one can clearly identify a P wave before every QRS complex, which is then followed by a T wave; in Atrial Fibrillation, the Sinoatrial node fires irregularly causing there to be no clear P wave and an irregular QRS complex (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2013). Basically, it means that the atria, the upper chambers of the heart, are contracting too quickly and no clear P wave is identified because of this ‘fibrillation’ (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2013).
With this newer technology Physicians, nurses, and other approved medical staff have the option to monitor their patient’s heart functionality, and fix pacemaker electrical signals to fit patients need from a mobile device, without ever bringing the patient into the Physicians’ office. Cardiac remote patient monitoring uses smart phones, and specific designed (secured) e-mails to deliver information sent from the device implanted within the patient’s heart. This allows medical staff to receive pertinent up-to date- information on the condition of the patient’s pacemaker, and heart. This can help create profound patient care, early critical heart failure, or heart defibrillation detection; while adding to medical staff’s proficiency, and cutting costly emergency room visits with prevention detection ("Remote Monitoring Technology Improves Pacemaker Performance", 2012).
This reflection of vital signs will go into discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of each vital sign and the importance of each of them. Vital signs should be assessed many different times such as on admission to a health care facility, before and after something substantial has happened to the patient such as surgery and so forth (ref inter). I learned to assess blood pressure (BP), pulse (P), temperature (T) and respiration (R) and I will reflect and discuss which aspects were more difficult and ways to improve on them. While pulse, respiration and temperature were fairly easy to become skilled at, it was blood pressure which was a bit more difficult to understand.