Standardized protocol for taking and recording vital signs: Accuracy and safety in Clinical Practice

Abstract

A protocol responds to the concept of procedure and represents a series of actions aimed at the development of a basic activity or a technique with a care objective. The taking and recording of vital signs exclusive to nursing and essential for the clinical evaluation of the patient has been faced with certain disagreements regarding their number, which fluctuates between three and seven signs. Develop a nursing protocol for taking and recording the four vital signs: pulse, temperature, blood pressure and respiratory rate, reaffirming its methodological rigor and ratifying the need to update information on new, more accurate devices without forgetting the focus on continuous improvement as an indicator of health care. We reviewed publications inherent to protocols as tools that measure nursing care with an impact on the patient, the family and the community. The appropriate information is that which refers to the four as vital signs whose semiology based on physiology requires minimal skills and equipment, but which is currently reinforced with increasingly accurate devices and methods in obtaining data thanks to the development of electronic and digital technologies. Based on the principles of clinical and surgical nursing published in the last five years, a care protocol was developed for the taking and recording of vital signs. Protocolizing care forces us to deepen our knowledge, favors scientific research and facilitates the identification in the medical literature of the best scientific evidence to decide on the most appropriate strategy to promote the benefit for the patient and displace the less effective ones.