OBJECTIVES: To evaluate pharmacy students' skills at measuring brachial artery blood pressure and radial heart rate at the completion of a patient assessment course in the second-professional year of a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program. METHODS: Students enrolled in a required patient assessment laboratory course (n = 83) participated in this study. Each student was randomly matched with a classmate and manually measured the classmate's blood pressure by auscultation of the brachial artery and heart rate by palpation of the radial pulse. RESULTS: The student-device absolute disagreement was 6.5 +/- 4.8 mmHg for systolic blood pressure (SBP), 6.2 +/- 4.5 mmHg for diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and 5.3 +/- 4.0 beats per minute (BPM) for heart rate. Student and machine measurements of SBP, DBP, and HR significantly correlated. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacy students in the second-professional year of a PharmD program demonstrated competence in but not mastery of manual blood pressure and heart rate measurement. These skills need further refinement during third- and fourth-professional year APPEs.
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate pharmacy students' skills at measuring brachial artery blood pressure and radial heart rate at the completion of a patient assessment course in the second-professional year of a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program. METHODS: Students enrolled in a required patient assessment laboratory course (n = 83) participated in this study. Each student was randomly matched with a classmate and manually measured the classmate's blood pressure by auscultation of the brachial artery and heart rate by palpation of the radial pulse. RESULTS: The student-device absolute disagreement was 6.5 +/- 4.8 mmHg for systolic blood pressure (SBP), 6.2 +/- 4.5 mmHg for diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and 5.3 +/- 4.0 beats per minute (BPM) for heart rate. Student and machine measurements of SBP, DBP, and HR significantly correlated. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmacy students in the second-professional year of a PharmD program demonstrated competence in but not mastery of manual blood pressure and heart rate measurement. These skills need further refinement during third- and fourth-professional year APPEs.
Authors: Thomas G Pickering; John E Hall; Lawrence J Appel; Bonita E Falkner; John Graves; Martha N Hill; Daniel W Jones; Theodore Kurtz; Sheldon G Sheps; Edward J Roccella Journal: Hypertension Date: 2004-12-20 Impact factor: 10.190
Authors: D K Solomon; T S Portner; G E Bass; D R Gourley; G A Gourley; J M Holt; W R Wicke; R L Braden; T N Eberle; T H Self; B L Lawrence Journal: J Am Pharm Assoc (Wash) Date: 1998 Sep-Oct