How to measure blood pressure manually
Intended for healthcare professionals
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How to measure blood pressure manually

Melanie Rushton Adult lecturer, University of Salford, Manchester, England
Joyce Smith Adult lecturer, University of Salford, Manchester, England

Rationale and key points

This article aims to help nurses to measure blood pressure (BP) manually using an aneroid sphygmomanometer.

BP measurement is an essential clinical skill, and nurses must be competent in performing this procedure and taking accurate readings.

Nurses should be aware of manual BP measurement techniques and understand the patient and environmental factors that may result in inaccurate readings that could compromise patient care.

Nurses should regularly undertake manual BP measurement to ensure they remain competent to perform the procedure.

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Nursing Standard. 30, 21, 36-39. doi: 10.7748/ns.30.21.36.s43

Correspondence

m.a.rushton@salford.ac.uk

Peer review

All articles are subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software.

Received: 14 October 2014

Accepted: 05 February 2015

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