A How-to Guide to Taking Your Blood Pressure

Up until now, you may have considered yourself a healthy individual. However, your recent visit to the doctor's office leaves you feeling anxious. You’ve been told that your blood pressure is higher than normal and that you may want to continue monitoring at home. Before leaving your appointment, the provider may have discussed some important information: lifestyle changes, developing healthy eating habits, frequent exercise, and how to monitor your blood pressure. Leaving you to wonder "how do I even take my own manual blood pressure"?

No worries, I am here to help. As a recent graduate in Medical Assisting, I will take what I have learned in school and share with you in this step-by-step how-to guide. By the end, you should feel more comfortable in the blood pressure process.

IMPORTANT!!!!

The provider will instruct you on what to look for; such as elevated readings and what to do if you should experience signs and symptoms. Please be aware that this is ONLY instruction on how to perform the manual blood pressure at home. This will feel awkward at first but with practice, you’ll catch on in no time.

Blood pressure cuff and Stethoscope

When you are ready to take your blood pressure try to sit quietly, relax, and take a few deep breaths; be sure to give yourself a moment. Before you begin, check your posture. Sit with your feet flat on the floor and legs uncrossed. I find that sitting on a kitchen chair helps to ensure good posture. Also, if you are wearing a thick top, remove it. Let’s begin. Place the blood pressure cuff about 2 inches or 2 fingers-widths above the bend in your elbow. In the picture, note how I have word "Artery" and the circle symbol placed directly above the middle space of my inner elbow.

Ensure the cuff is placed snug around your upper arm but with enough room to slip two fingertips under the cuff.

!OUCH ALERT!

If it is too tight it will pinch the skin and make it very uncomfortable!

Once the cuff is on, rest your arm on a flat surface with it extending slightly out in front of you. Place the disk of the stethoscope face-down slightly under the cuff at the bend of your elbow. With the disk in position, place the stethoscope earpieces in your ears. BE SURE THE EARPIECES ARE FACING FORWARD. I also recommend placing the stethoscope disk and earpieces in this order! If the earpieces are in your ears before situating and placing the disk, it can be rather loud and uncomfortable.

Now, rest the gauge (the open-faced gadget with the numbers and dashes) in the open palm of your cuffed arm. Keep this arm relaxed and do not have a firm grip on the gauge.

Before you start inflating the blood pressure cuff, check and make sure that the nozzle connected to the bulb(pump) is closed. You don’t want your cuff to leak as you are trying to obtain your blood pressure. You will know that it’s closed when it’s turned over completely in a clockwise direction.

Let’s take that blood pressure! Start by squeezing the bulb rapidly with the opposite hand. Inflate the cuff until the gauge reads 30 above your usual systolic pressure (remember the systolic pressure is the top number). Once you have gone 30 points over, stop squeezing. Turn the knob (valve) counterclockwise to slowly start deflating the cuff; letting the pressure fall 2 to 3 mm (2-3 lines) on the dial, per second. Listen closely for the first sounds of heartbeat and note the reading as the systolic pressure. Continue slowly releasing air until you note a sudden change in sound to a softer, muffled tone; note this as the diastolic pressure. If you are unsure of what the first reading was, wait 15-30 seconds and repeat the process. With time, patience, and continued practice, take notice that each time does get easier.