White Coat Syndrome
Some patients will come in with what we call white coat syndrome, which is where they get a bit anxious.
Some people get it without even realizing, they sit down, their blood pressure is sky high because they're sat in your clinic room and you're doing the blood pressure.
So this is why the NICE guidelines say that you should get the patient to do a week's worth of readings, morning and evening, from the comfort of their own home.
If they've got blood pressure at home, if they've got family members blood pressure machine that they can borrow, get them to do a week diary of readings just so you can have a look and see what those readings are at home.
'Cause a lot of the time patients' blood pressure at home is actually okay, it's perfect, it's purely when they're coming to clinic and that's okay.
But if it's regularly high, high, high when they're at home or really extremely low, then that's you would refer on to the doctor or advanced Nurse practitioner to have a look into.
Causes Of High Blood Pressure
So what causes problems with your blood pressure?
We're going to talk about more high blood pressure because that's where people get more problems with it.
So things like eating too much salt, drinking alcohol, smoking, obesity, different health conditions as well can increase your blood pressure, some people that are pregnant, their blood pressure can go up as well.
So, different lifestyles, different diets, different ethnicities as well are sort of more prone to getting high blood pressure.
I don't think there's a lot of research out there into the reasons why that happens, but it's, again, different health conditions, medications, lifestyles, eating, drinking, things like that, all come into a big play with this.
Some other things are like certain medications or if someone's got kidney problems, something like that or heart problems, they might have a variation in their blood pressure.
It might be going too high, too low, might be completely erratic, who knows?
So that's why when someone comes into clinic and they've got a high blood of pressure, we always do blood tests and ECG just to rule out any kidney problems, any electrolyte imbalances which could be causing that as well, and then ECG to check the heart and make sure there's nothing going on there as well.
And if anyone does have any cardiovascular problems going on, like atrial fibrillation, for example, AF, you should always use a manual blood pressure machine.
Because, if you use an electric monitor it can vary, literally by like fifteens or something like that.
So always use a manual one to make sure it's accurate because the readings are going to be completely different to electro monitor because they can't read it as good as your own ears if that makes sense, so it's always best practice to use a manual set if you've got one.
Equipment
Also, whilst we're talking with the equipment is choosing the right size cuff for your page as well, so make sure the cuff is the right size for your patient because having a cuff that doesn't fit well, it's too big, too small, really makes a massive difference to the blood pressure reading.
You'll be surprised, I've tried and tested this myself just to see and it can be way off. So make sure you've got the right cuff size as well.
Symptoms Of High Blood Pressure
So, some symptoms of high blood pressure that people might get, blurred vision, headaches, chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, and nose bleeds.
However, more than one in four adults have high blood pressure and they don't even know they've got it.
They don't have any symptoms or anything that sort of say that they've got high blood pressure.
This is why we do our health checks, especially as a GP Nurse in clinics, just to make sure that people are okay and manage it.
And lastly, some things that you can do to lower blood pressure or you get your patients to do to lower blood pressure is lifestyle advice, reducing salt intake, alcohol intake, reduce smoking, losing weight, doing more exercise as well.
The theory behind the exercises, the more exercise you do, the stronger your heart's getting, so it doesn't have to pump as hard and vigorous as it should to get the blood around the body.
So the blood pressure should come down if that makes sense. But just making those small lifestyle changes can really make a massive difference to someone's blood pressure, without the need for medications.
It can just make such a big difference to somebody.
Conclusion
So that's it for me. I hope that's helped you understand a little bit more about blood pressure, why we do it, and the risks and things like that.
I hope it's been helpful. Any comments, any more videos you'd like me to do, leave a comment below and I will get back to it.
Thank you, have a great day, everyone.
About this contributor
Registered Nurse
I am a Registered Nurse with over 12 years healthcare experience including: elderly care, orthopaedics, sexual health / family planning, qualified GP nurse, transgender healthcare and now in my new role as an assistant lecturer (as of Nov 2022). I believe that nursing gets a lot of bad press, so I create blogs and vlogs to help anyone considering their nursing career and to create positivity surrounding our profession as I'm so passionate about nursing.
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Log In Subscribe to commentIyabo Lawal
Iyabo Lawal
3 years agoI must confess this is one of the best videos on blood pressure that I've watched. Very educative. Keep it ... read more
I must confess this is one of the best videos on blood pressure that I've watched. Very educative. Keep it up Claire.
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Tracie Mckelvie
Tracie Mckelvie
3 years agoI have to say that after 30 years of nursing, this has to be the best explanation of blood pressure ... read more
I have to say that after 30 years of nursing, this has to be the best explanation of blood pressure I have heard. It’s great, and much better than my explanations. I think I’m going to “pinch” parts of Clare’s descriptive dialogue. It just goes to show that you’re never to old, or too experienced to learn and develop from colleagues. Thank you so much Clare!
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Ruta Baltruniene
Ruta Baltruniene
3 years agoVery interesting and informative video! Thank you very much 👩⚕️
Very interesting and informative video! Thank you very much 👩⚕️
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