My students have been practicing vital signs for about a month now. The first few weeks we did each vital sign separate per class period. Each vital sign had a worksheet used to prompt them with general questions, a few math problems, and obtain the readings on five other students. We did height and weight and then they had to convert inches to centimeters and pounds to kilograms. We did temperature and they had to convert Fahrenheit to Celcius. We did pulse and I had them take resting pulse and then exercise for 2 minutes and take another pulse reading and compare. I combined apical pulse with respirations so they could listen to heart sounds and breathing sounds along with counting respirations. These labs done individually per class period kept everybody on task the whole period and I didn't have a hard time monitoring them all.
Well, we have gotten to blood pressure, which is much harder to do than the other vital signs, and everyone is getting off task, wasting thermometer probes, etc. I know the main reason is because of the attention I need to give individuals is not allowing me to monitor the whole class like I was able to before. The students have a vital signs spread sheet and rubric on how they will be graded on performing a complete set. I have instructed everyone to practice blood pressures and then begin getting complete sets of vital signs on each other, a minimum of five, before they can come to me to get a final grade. To ensure that individually are correctly reading blood pressures I use an electronic manikin arm to set a blood pressure and then the student takes it and I know if they are correct or not. I think it is important to give that one-on-one attention to ensure they are doing it correctly. I just don't like the time that is being wasted by the other students as I work with individuals. We have already taken our unit test over the book knowledge so I don't feel like there is any other worksheet or book work that needs to be done. They just need to use the time to practice and most are not.
Question How did you divide the students into groups? I have the students role play health care worker and client, then have the client move to different health care worker to get their vital signs taken. once that is done, i have the students change places and do it again. in that way they have to practice their communication skills and give a little more order to the room..
ReplyDeleteit is hard to watch more that 20 students doing vital sign and for the class to stay in order. good luck
Connie
ReplyDeleteIt really sounds like you are well organized. Your planning and layout are excellent for a vital signs lab.
In the past I did use worksheets during the time I was teaching blood pressure monitoring because of the difficulty you cited when working individually. One thing that did work when I got to the part where they were supposed to practice was the creation of scenarios for the teams to follow with the team leaders in charge of their respective groups. For example, I had one group that had to create a care plan for a patient with cardiomyopathy for a 24 hour period concentrating on vital signs and weights and then chart results on graphs. This did buy me some time as the team was first of all busy trying to decipher "cadiomyopathy" and then plan out the vital signs as well as chart them.
I'm starting this lesson next week with my Level II students, so I was glad that you wrote about your experiences. I like Delores' idea about deciphering cardiomegaly and making a care plan. This lesson can take so long to complete. I would also suggest the ideas of creating a crossword puzzle with the key terms, maybe creating other care plan scenarios or medical math problems for each day.
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