A time study on measuring and recording of blood pressure in selected wards of a tertiary care hospital of North India

Jogindra Vati*, Masih Dayal**
* Senior Lecturer, National Institute of Nursing Education(NINE) PGIMER, Chandigarh.
Periodicity:August - October'2011
DOI : https://doi.org/10.26634/jnur.1.3.1521

Abstract

The blood pressure (BP) measurement and recording is one of the many nursing activities performed by nurses. Mostly conventional non-invasive auscultatory method is used in measuring blood pressure that is an indirect measurement of arterial pressure. Nurses spend a large quantum of time of duty hours on this procedure. Despite the time spent by nurses for different nursing activities documented in the literature, but empirical evidence on time study specifically on blood pressure measurement is lacking in Indian scenario. Hence an attempt was made to estimate the time taken in measuring and recording the blood pressure. Fifty operational nurses were selected conveniently from 13 randomly selected wards of a tertiary care hospital. A total 250 observations (five on each subject) were made during morning, evening and night hours with the help of pretested electronic stopwatch. The data revealed that to carry out all steps of the procedure, the average time taken by a nurse was132.4 seconds (2.2 minutes). On the average they spent 6 seconds (range 5.4-6.45 seconds) to assemble the articles either from nursing station or from one patient to another and 1-2.1 seconds in explaining the procedure to the patient. Whereas in carrying out the actual procedure that comprised of fifteen steps, they took an average of 115.3 seconds and 9.73 seconds to record the readings in the nurses document sheet. The nurses working in special wards took more time than the nurses working in medical wards.

Keywords

Blood pressure, Wards, Measuring,Recording.

How to Cite this Article?

Vati, J., and Dayal, M. A time study on measuring and recording of blood pressure in selected wards of a tertiary care hospital of North India. i-manager’s Journal on Nursing, 1(3), 13-17. https://doi.org/10.26634/jnur.1.3.1521

References

[1]. Ali, S., & Rouse A. (2002). Practice Audits: Reliability of Sphygmomanometers and Blood Pressure Recording Bias. J Hum Hypertens; 16:359-61.
[2]. Beevers, G., Lip, G.Y., O'Brien E. (2001). Conventional sphygmomanometry: technique of auscultatory blood pressure measurement. BMJ; pp. 322:1043-7.
[3]. Perloff, D., Grim, C., Flack, J., Frohlich, ED., Hill, M., McDonald M. (1993). Human blood pressure determination by sphygmomanometry. Circulation; 88:2460-7.
[4]. Darbyshire, D.M. (1968). Guide to Study the Activities of Health Personnel in Hospital. New Delhi: WHO Regional Office of South East Asia.
[5]. Sharma, N.B. (2001). “A study on utilization of morning hours and influencing environmental stimuli of the operational level nurses working in the selected wards of Nehru hospital, PGIMER, Chandigarh”. Unpublished M.Sc. Nursing Theses, College of Nursing PGIMER. Panjab University.
[6]. Ureden, L.D., & Roode. J.L. (1997). Work sampling-a decision-making tool for determining resources and work redesign. Journal of Nursing Administration; pp. 27:34-41.
[7]. Khanna, O.P. (1963). Work study, Motion and Time Study. New Delhi: Dhanpat Rai Publication.
[8]. Elizabeth, M., & Blyth, R. (1988). Guidelines for Clinical Nursing Practices. New York: Churchill Livingston.
[9]. McAlister, F.A., & Straus, S.E. (2001). Measurement of blood pressure: an evidence based review. BMJ; 322:908- 11.
[10]. Russel, A.E., Wing, L.M., Smith, S.A., Aylward, P.E., & Ritchie, RJ. (1989). Optimal size of cuff bladder for indirect measurement of arterial pressure in adults. J Hypertens; 7:607-13.
[11]. Veiga, E.V., Nogueira, M.S., & Carnio, E.C. (2003). et al. Assessment of the techniques of blood pressure measurement by health professionals. Arq Bras Cardiol; 80:89-93.
[12]. Vlachopoulos, C., & O'Rourke, M. (2000). Diastolic pressure, systolic pressure, or pulse pressure. Curr Hypertens Rep ; 2: 271–279.
[13]. Wall Manning, H.J., & Pauline, J.M. (1987). Effect of arm position and support on blood pressure reading. J Clin Hypertens; 3:624-30.
[14]. Dhaulta, J.P. (1975). An activity analysis of staff nurses in a selected government hospital of Himachal Pradesh. Unpublished Master's Thesis, Delhi.
[15]. Ratni, T. (1978). A study of the utilization of nursing personnel in a Medical unit of SMHS hospital in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir State. Unpublished Master's Thesis, Delhi.
If you have access to this article please login to view the article or kindly login to purchase the article

Purchase Instant Access

Single Article

North Americas,UK,
Middle East,Europe
India Rest of world
USD EUR INR USD-ROW
Pdf 35 35 200 20
Online 35 35 200 15
Pdf & Online 35 35 400 25

Options for accessing this content:
  • If you would like institutional access to this content, please recommend the title to your librarian.
    Library Recommendation Form
  • If you already have i-manager's user account: Login above and proceed to purchase the article.
  • New Users: Please register, then proceed to purchase the article.