CNA Training – Taking Vital Signs

When you are train to be a CNA, you will learn about taking vital signs.  This will be an important part of your day when you are working as a certified nursing assistant.  You will help to monitor a patient’s vital signs throughout your shift.

You will learn the procedure for taking vital signs when you are hired at a healthcare facility.  In most cases, you will be making notations of those signs in the patient’s chart.  You will be told what to do if a patient’s vital signs change dramatically or show that they are in distress.  Depending on where you are working, the number of times per day that you take vital signs might vary.

It might be necessary to take vital signs every couple hours.  In other cases you might be instructed to take vital signs a couple times during your shift.  There might even be times when you will only be told to take vital signs at the beginning of your particular shift.

There are a few different signs that you will probably keep an eye on as a nursing assistant.  You are likely to take blood pressure readings.  You will need to note if the patient’s blood pressure is too high or even if it is too low.  You might also be asked to monitor a patient’s pulse rate.  In some settings, you might also check a patient’s respirations.

It is not uncommon to be instructed to take a patient’s temperature.  If you are working in a long-term care facility, you might not always be taking a temperature.  However, you are likely to be instructed to do so during times when a resident is ill.  If you are working in a hospital setting, you are likely to be instructed to take temperatures of your patients at least once during your shift.

There is another notation for the charts that you might be taught to watch throughout the day.  You might be asked to pay attention to a patient’s intake of food and liquids.  Any vital signs that you take should be noted in the chart as instructed by the employer.

When you are attending CNA training, you will learn how to take vital signs.  You will have some skills training before you even work with a patient.  This will allow you to practice taking vital signs.  You will probably take turns taking vital signs of other students.  Eventually, you will be able to take vital signs for patients.  This will be done during your hands on training for your nursing assistant training course.

By the time you take your CNA exam, you will know how to efficiently take vital signs.  It should not be difficult at all for you to demonstrate your ability to check any one of the main vital signs.  Once you pass your exam and start your career as a certified nursing assistant, you will petty well be an expert at taking vital signs.