Question

Your patient is a 45-year-old male with a height of 5'8" and a weight of 332 lb. He seems nea? while you are taking his tympanic temperature and recording his respirations. You have to finding the radial pulse because of the fatty deposits on his arms, but you are finally able to get a reading. When you try to wrap the regular blood pressure cuff around his arm, however, doesn't reach all the way around. The patient is very embarrassed and starts stammering about how he knows he needs to lose weight. How will you handle this situation?

Answer 1

Usually when we try to check the vital signs of the patient's they feel it uneasy because of the anxiety they have. This patient however has a reason with which he feels embarrassed about himself which is related to his weight. He thinks he is obese making him feel uncomfortable. Also along with it the patient has the difficulty with the equipment's used to check his vitals making it more difficult and more embarrassed.

Being a nurse my reapresponsibitowards my patient is to make him comfortable and easy. I will first try to talk to the patient about the unnecessary consiousness about his health and appearance .I will try to convince him that there are many people who are more obese than what he is and will encourage him to try to loose weight and will assure him to help him do it untill his stay at the hospitals I will also make sure that he understands his situation and takes it positively and that we don't assume our patients condition by his appearance and his situation.