How to read a patient monitor, step by step

The order experienced staff use on a monitor: the patient first, then signal quality, rate and rhythm, oxygen, breathing, pressure, the trend and finally the alarms. Shown with a poor pleth, atrial fibrillation and a slowly falling pressure.

Transcript

Experienced staff read a monitor in the same order every time. First, look at the patient, not the screen. Then check that every curve is a real signal.

Here the pleth wave has gone flat and ragged. The saturation number next to it can't be trusted.

Next, rate and rhythm. This ECG is irregular, and the pulse waves change height from beat to beat. That points to atrial fibrillation.

Then oxygen, breathing and pressure. And always the trend. A blood pressure sliding down over minutes tells you more than any single value.

Last, before you silence an alarm, find out what set it off.

The step-by-step guide is at patientmonitorsimulator.com.