Part 2: The Blood Pressure
I love teaching each new EMT class cycle how to take a blood pressure. It’s fairly simple and strait-forward, but there’s also a real art to it. Folks who are good at it wield their 
blood pressure cuff like a teppanyaki chef wields his knife. You can tell they’re good by watching the confidence in their movements, the order that they perform the steps, and the attention they give to the details.
There’s a big difference between the guy who chops vegetables down at the local Denny’s and the chef at the Benihana. Same tools, different level of skill. You see what I mean right? If your blood pressure skills are still somewhere in between the short order cook and the teppanyaki chef, here are some tips to getting better.
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Part 1: The Pulse
There are few things that EMT’s should claim as their domain. There are certain skills that the EMT provider should simple dominate. Vital signs are one such 
skill. No medical provider anywhere should be able to hold a candle to the EMT when vitals signs are the name of the game.
Vital signs are, to the EMT, what sharp shooting is to the sniper; what the fast ball is to the closing pitcher; what swordsmanship is to Zorro. It’s the EMT bread-and-butter skill. And yet…so many EMTs fumble through vital signs like it’s amateur hour. No more. Over the next few weeks we’re going to break down vital signs here at The Spot and make every one of our trusted and loyal readers a vital sign virtuoso.
Are you ready? Carnegie Hall awaits. Let’s start with the pulse check.
Some EMT’s can take 30 seconds to a minute to check a pulse. When they’re done they have one single piece of clinical information to pass on, the heart rate. Others can feel a pulse for 3 seconds and tell you much, much more about the patient’s cardiovascular status. What’s the difference? Practice and focus. If you’d like to be the second EMT, here’s how.
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