Megan Kariger, CCLS, child life services, Parkview Health, offers guidance for our young patients and their parents.
When you visit the doctor, the emergency room, the Pediatric floor or the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, a nurse or tech will need to check your vital signs. One of the tests they will do is checking your blood pressure. They will wrap a blood pressure cuff around your arm. The cuff will give your arm a big hug. This is so that they can see how your heart is doing.
They will also check your temperature by putting a thermometer under your tongue or arm. This might be just like the one you use at home. They are checking to see if you have a fever.
Another vital sign they check is your breathing respiratory rate. They will put something called a pulse oximeter on your finger. This may look like a clip or a Band-Aidâ that they wrap around your finger.
These tests will help the people taking care of you so you can start feeling better as fast as possible.
*Please note this video was created before the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent mask protocols.
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