Home Nursing Techniques; Signs & Symptoms of Illnesses & Diseases

1.  If you are a good home nurse, what are the various home nursing techniques that you need to apply that will make the patient feel comfortable and speed up the recovery?

-First of all, I have to provide the patient's need carefully and patiently. I also need to have the characteristics of a Home Nurse. It would help the patient feel comfortable. Such as being cheerful, and responsible.

2.  Why should the home nurse monitor the vital signs of the patient?

-So that the home nurse will be aware of past illnesses that the patient has experienced or whether it was the first time the patient had experienced it. It will also keep the doctor in track of the patient's health status.

3.  How do you take the body temperature, pulse rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure of the patient?

-Rectal temperature is the most accurate. This method does have a slight chance for injury to the rectum or of losing the thermometer into the rectum.

To take an oral temperature, make sure the person has not had anything to eat or drink within the last 10 minutes.  Place the thermometer under the tongue so that it sits down in the small "pouch-like" area on either side of the piece of tissue that holds the tongue down
The person must hold their mouth closed and keep the thermometer in place for a certain period of time.

To take the temperature in the armpit, Make sure the "reading" part of the thermometer is centered in the middle of the arm pit.  Have the person hold their arm firmly against their body for one minute, (or until thermometer beeps).  *Add* one degree to an axillary temperature to make it accurate.

To get the pulse rate, there are only 3 steps:

Locate the pulse. Have the victim hold his or her hand out, palm up. Use two fingers (index and middle) to locate the pulse on the wrist at the base of the thumb. The pulse feels like a rhythmic thumping.
Count the beats. Using a clock or watch with a second hand, time yourself counting the pulsating beats for 15 seconds.
Calculate the pulse rate. Multiply the pulses you counted in 15 seconds by 4 to get the pulse rate.
For the respiratory rate, The rate is usually measured when a person is at rest and simply involves counting the number of breaths for one minute by counting how many times the chest rises. Respiration rates may increase with fever, illness, and with other medical conditions. When checking respiration, it is important to also note whether a person has any difficulty breathing.

Lastly, for the blood pressure, you use a spygmometer. Two numbers are recorded when measuring blood pressure. The higher number, or systolic pressure, refers to the pressure inside the artery when the heart contracts and pumps blood through the body. The lower number, or diastolic pressure, refers to the pressure inside the artery when the heart is at rest and is filling with blood. Both the systolic and diastolic pressures are recorded as "mm Hg" (millimeters of mercury). This recording represents how high the mercury column is raised by the pressure of the blood


4.  What are some practices that the home nurse must follow that will
           promote comfort to the patient?

If we take care of them and make them feel taken care of, they will feel comfort.


5.  How will you differentiate signs from symptoms of illnesses and
           diseases?

A symptom is subjective from the patient point of view. A symptom is what the patient experiences about the illness, injury or disease. Symptoms can only be experienced, they are not able to be observed or measured objectively.

A sign is an objective physical manifestation of illness, injury or disease. It is an objective finding, something one can observe and measure. A rapid pulse, a high temperature, a low blood pressure, an open wound, bruising, etc. are all signs. Signs give a more definite indication of the presence of a particular disease to the physician. Signs may be described as the current 'showcase' that the doctor observes in the patient and in the diagnostic testing and measurements.

So in the simplest form, signs are observations of the doctor and symptoms are the experiences of the patient.


6.  If you are the doctor, what will be your basis in giving the diagnosis for your patient?
The basis will be the symptoms of the patient that he or she is experiencing.