Vital Signs - Primary Four

Primary Four

There are four vital signs which are standard in most medical settings:

  1. Body temperature
  2. Pulse rate (or heart rate)
  3. Blood pressure
  4. Respiratory rate

The equipment needed is a thermometer, a sphygmomanometer, and a watch.

Though a pulse can often be taken by hand, a stethoscope may be required for a patient with a very weak pulse.

Read more about this topic:  Vital Signs

Famous quotes containing the word primary:

    It was the feeling of a passenger on an ocean steamer whose mind will not give him rest until he has been in the engine-room and talked with the engineer. She wanted to see with her own eyes the action of primary forces; to touch with her own eyes the action of primary forces; to touch with her own hand the massive machinery of society; to measure with her own mind the capacity of the motive power. She was bent upon getting to the heart of the great American mystery of democracy and government.
    Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)

    A fact is a proposition of which the verification by an appeal to the primary sources of our knowledge or to experience is direct and simple. A theory, on the other hand, if true, has all the characteristics of a fact except that its verification is possible only by indirect, remote, and difficult means.
    Chauncey Wright (1830–1875)