A Nursing Assistant's Online Journal

By the way, if by any chance you landed a job as nursing assistant, your primary task is to support the nursing staff in providing the basic care needs of the patients. As a nursing assistant, you will be required to lift the patient from time to time so that they won’t develop bedsores. You will also assist them in changing their clothing or getting to the bathroom. Apart from monitoring the vital signs of the patients using the different home medical equipment like blood pressure device and thermometer, it is also included in the tasks of certified nursing assistants to administer IV medications. With these tasks, you might probably say that CNAs job is really exhausting especially on times when the ratio of patient-to-nurse is particularly high. But if you really have the desire to help or improve other’s life, all these things are nothing. 

Getting the vital signs of the patient before is a little bit time consuming for nurses. Almost all instruments used monitoring the overall health condition of an individual are mechanically operated. But when advances in medical technology came, digital hospital and home medical equipments were invented.

Medical instruments play crucial roles in saving the lives of people. They are purposely designed to monitor health under difficult conditions. And with digital hospital and home medical equipments, these brought great convenience particularly for the part of nurses most especially on times when there are a lot of patients to attend to. These modern instruments are usually designed with high precision and fast response time. While for the part of the patient, modernize hospital and home medical equipments likewise offer them better comfort than traditional ones.

From a simple thermometer and blood pressure device, all these modern hospital and home medical equipments feature the basic systems of a digitally operated device. And that includes a power/battery management system, control and data processing unit, amplification, amplification and A/D conversion of the sensor input, display units and sensory element. No wonder why modern medical instruments are much better and safer to use.

By the way, I have hear some of the common hospital and home medical equipments that go digital:

Digital Thermometer

Digital Blood Pressure Device

Digital Pulse Monitor

Portable Glucose Meter

One of the common reasons why people become obese and at risk for high blood pressure is because of their unhealthy lifestyle. Unhealthy lifestyle simply means the person is smoking, drinking, has poor diet, and lack of physical activity. According to survey, these people with unhealthy lifestyle are three times more likely to die from diseases especially heart-related disorders and cancer. Hypertension is also another prevalent disorder that a person with poor lifestyle may experience.

Today, hypertension or high blood problem is becoming the number one health problem not just of Americans but of all individuals around the world. With more and more children below 18 years old who are becoming obese these days, hypertension is also getting more and more common as obesity is among the risk factors for high blood pressure.

So if you are one of those people with poor lifestyle choices, better think now. If you want to shorten your life span or put an end to it right away, then continue with your poor lifestyle. However, if you still want to live longer and witness your future generation, then start practicing a healthy behavior.

Here in our nursing home facility, many of our clients are hypertensive. We don’t always give them beta-blockers unless the BP level is very high. And on this post, I will share to you our secrets to naturally lower one’s blood pressure or keep it stable at normal level (120.80 mmHg). If you are one those hypertensive people who still want to extend their life span, these tips are for surely beneficial for you.

Be physically active

Similar to other healthcare facilities, nursing homes are also equipped with a number of medical equipments that will help caregivers or nursing assistants like me to effectively carry out our every day duties to people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living. Below is a list of home medical equipment and products essential in my duty. By the way, I work in an assisted living type of nursing home care.

Sphygmomanometer – This serve as a blood pressure device in order for me to accurately monitor the BP reading of my client. Through this, I am able to save my patient from possible hypertension or hypotension. Blood pressure device comes in various types but I feel more comfortable the one with an analog manometer.

Heart Monitor – Portable heart monitor is another important home medical equipment for me when working in nursing homes. Through this, I become aware the heart condition of my patients.













Wheelchair – The wheelchair is among the important ambulatory devices for those who cannot walk. But aside from them, I also use wheelchair to safely and comfortably transport my patient from one place to another. Wheelchairs are available in two types – automatically operated and manually operated. From these two types of ambulatory device, I am at ease in using a manual wheelchair to my patient.






Crutches – This is another essential mobility device for my patients who have mobility impairment or an injury that limits his or her walking ability.
















Gloves – They are part of the personal protective equipment required for every healthcare workers like me. Gloves help protect my hands from being exposed to harmful germs and bodily fluids, which often causes cross-contamination.













Disinfectants – Preventing the spread of infection is always the first priority in healthcare facility. This is the reason why every healthcare worker should have with them a disinfectant like hand sanitizer, antibacterial soap, antibacterial wipes, and sterilizer solution in order to keep ourselves, the facility, and the equipments clean.









Forceps – This handheld, hinged instrument is intended for grasping and holding objects. Its functionality is something that a healthcare professional truly appreciate because without this device, it is very difficult too large fingers to grasp small objects or to hold several objects at one time yet the other hand is busy performing other tasks. The forceps also help in preventing cross-contamination.














Scissors – This is one of the medical instruments for cutting. Scissors comes in different types and the bandage scissors is the one that I commonly used. The said cutting instrument features an ergonomically designed blunt tip at the bottom blade to prevent accidental injury when cutting bandages.

As a nursing assistant, one of my tasks is to monitor the vital signs of my client or patient regularly. The frequency of checking the vital signs depends on the physician’s order. For patients who are in critical condition or have just undergone operative procedure, nursing assistants like me are usually advised to do constant monitoring; say within 15 minutes until the vital signs become stable. While for those are not in critical condition but is sick, checking of vital signs is often done after 4 or 6 hours.

What are the things I have to check? This will definitely include body temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate, respiration rate, and other changes on the patient's skin, eyes, etc. Adults and child have different vital signs range but in this post, I will be focusing on adult. The normal body temperature for adult usually ranges from 36.5 to 37.5 degrees Celsius. Average pulse rate should not be less than 60 beats per minute but should not also exceed to 100 beats per minute. Normal respiratory rate is between 18 to 20 cycles per minute. One complete respiratory cycle is equivalent to 1 inhale and 1 exhale.  Meanwhile for the blood pressure, 120/80 millimeters of Mercury is the suggested normal reading. 

Getting the patient’s vital signs does not always need medical instruments. Some of them can be obtained through sensation and observation, just like the respiration rate and the pulse rate. In this type of examination, using of hospital or home medical equipment is not very necessary. As long as there is a properly functioning wristwatch or clock with a second hand, I can always obtain the accurate value for pulse and respiration of my patient. To get the pulse rate, what I do is to palpate the wall of radial artery using the tips of my two fingers (the index and middle fingers). The radial wall is found on the base of the thumb, with the hand out and the palm up. The number of pulsating beats that I accumulate within one minute will serve as my patient’s pulse rate.

Same as the pulse rate, the respiration rate can also be obtained without using medical instruments. To get the respiration rate, all I need is to look and count how many times the chest of the patient rise and fall within one minute. The rising of chest means the person is inhaling and the falling of chest means the person is exhaling. One inhale and one exhale sums up to one respiration cycle. In some patients, acquiring the respiration rate via chest is difficult. On situations like this, I observe the stomach instead.