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Mackenzie Matthews
Instructor: Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1101
September 29th, 2014
Struggling with BP
I remember the first time I took a manual blood pressure. It was a rough skill for me to
learn and even after practicing on my friends and peers in my Health Science II class and my
Nurse Aide courses, I have still had a time learning the correct way of performing it. I began
learning about blood pressure (or BP in medical abbreviation) early spring in my junior year of
high school. I had just begun my journey in the long road of being in the medical field by
enrolling in our schools Health Science classes. My teacher, Mrs. Whitt, was an odd character.
She was an older lady of about fifty, had long, dark hair that curled like a poodles and wore
glasses that would typically sit on the end of her nose. She was pretty to look at and her
personality was the same. She was optimistic every day and was encouraging to all of her
students. I strived to do my best in her class, and she became one of the reasons that I wanted to
perform well in the health field.
Our classroom was fairly large, enough so that there a was storage closet in the back, a
hospital bed with a patient, and some tables that were big enough to have group work. There
were other various learning tools located in her classroom, and I can vividly remember Mrs.
Whitt having a 3-dimensional skeleton figure next to her desk that she used to help us learn
where different bones were in the body. There were only about twelve of us in her Health

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Science II class at the time, all girls unsurprisingly. I talked to everyone, but mainly kept close
with a short, red-headed girl named Jennifer. We would continue to be friends throughout my
senior year and went through the Nurse Aide I and II courses together.
The day Mrs. Whitt pulled out all of the stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs is just one
of the few days I can recall on in that class. After teaching us all about systolic and diastolic
pressures, how to read the meter on the blood pressure cuff, how to chart it on a record, and even
demonstrating the skill to us all one time, we all split off into pairs to try it for ourselves. Jennifer
and I grabbed a stethoscope and a BP cuff and started going through the steps. She went first,
and she could clearly hear and note the first thump of the blood pumping through my arm
(which is the systolic pressure) and could also note the last little thump (the diastolic pressure).
112/66, she announced to me. Seems like your blood pressure is in the normal range,
Kenzie.
Im shocked its not high! Especially with all the stress Ive been under lately, I
replied. My second semester of junior year was catching up with me and I was falling behind
fast. She handed me the supplies and told me to try next. I felt confident in my ability to take a
simple blood pressure. Mrs. Whitt had performed the skill with ease and Jennifer had taken mine
with no trouble, so why wouldnt I be able to do it? I cleaned off the ear pieces of the
stethoscope with an alcohol pad and put the instrument around my neck temporarily. I placed
two fingers on the middle of her arm to feel for the brachial artery, which was easy to find. I put
the blood pressure cuff around Jennifers left arm, securing it in place and making sure the cuff
wouldnt slide off if given the chance. I put the ear pieces in, placed the diaphragm of the
stethoscope on her arm, and began inflating the cuff. I inflated it up to 180 and slowly started to

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release the air inside. I listened quietly expecting to hear the start of the thumping of her blood
pumping through her arm, but didnt hear anything. Before I knew it, the cuff had completely
deflated and the meter was back down at the bottom. I glanced at Jennifer with a puzzled look on
my face.
Whats the matter? she asked.
I didnt hear a thing. The sound of the systolic or diastolic pressure, I said. Am I doing
something wrong?
She took the stethoscope from me and the blood pressure cuff off her arm, and took my
blood pressure once again.
Im hearing yours just fine, so I dont think it could be the equipment, she told me. I sat
there for a moment, confused as to what had been done incorrectly. Certainly nothing could be
mistaken in my technique. I carried out each step slowly and as to not mess up, because in the
medical world, one wrong move could ruin a reading or procedure, and ultimately end in
misfortune. I proceeded to try one more time on Jennifer to make sure I hadnt just made a
simple mistake. I went through every step like I was supposed to, and thinking maybe my earlier
try had failed due to my hearing equipment, I made sure that the ear pieces of my stethoscope
were in my ears correctly. I inflated the blood pressure cuff and slowly started to release the air
again. The needle on the meter kept falling back down closer and closer to zero, but again I heard
no sound. What could I possibly be doing wrong?
I yanked the ear pieces out of my ears in frustration and grabbed the cuff off of my
partners arm. Im going to see Mrs. Whitt about this, I exclaimed. Mrs. Whitt was helping

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another student take blood pressure when I came up to her, so I stood to the side where I
continued to rattle my brain about what went wrong.
She finished helping my classmate, and came and put her caring arm around me.
What can I help you with, love? she said calmly. She has always made our classroom
environment so comfortable and I had no trouble asking for her help.
Ive tried taking Jennifers blood pressure twice and I cant hear anything, but when she
takes mine, she can hear it just fine. So, its obviously not the equipment. Would you mind
watching me and seeing if Im doing something wrong? I asked with desperation.
Not a problem! she said. She followed me back over to Jennifer where I prepared to
take her blood pressure for a third time. I could see Mrs. Whitt out of the corner of my eye
observing me and I wondered if she might think I was incompetent because of my many failures
to do this simple skill. I didnt hear anything again, as expected, and I turned to my teacher with
a hopeless look on my face.
I think youre letting the air out too slow. Usually you can clearly hear the beginning
and end of the sound the blood makes if you let the air out just a tad faster and let the meter fall
down faster. Try that on me so Jennifers arms can have a rest. She sat down and held her left
arm out to me. I wrapped the blood pressure cuff around her arm and put the stethoscopes ear
pieces in my ears. If I failed again on this try, I was just going to give up on it all together. I
inflated the cuff to 180, and this time let the air out faster. When I heard that first thump at
122, I was overjoyed, and I smiled at Mrs. Whitt to let her know that I could hear it. I heard the
last sound at 72 and removed the stethoscope.

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It worked that time! Your blood pressure was 122 over 72. I told her with confidence.
Thank you for helping me.
Anytime. Keep practicing with your partner and Ill come back to check on you. She
walked away and moved on to the next group.
Jennifer and I practiced taking each others blood pressure a couple of more times before
the end of class and even after the Health Science class ended that semester, I still wasnt quite
professional at taking it. By the start of the next school year, I was at Surry Community College
enrolled in their Nurse Aide I course. We had to learn many skills in patient care, including vital
signs. So, blood pressure was reiterated to us and I had the chance to critique my performance
and understanding of it. Learning about blood pressure and how to take one came natural to most
of my classmates, but unfortunately for me it wasnt. During my clinicals for the class, I was
nervous about taking a real patients blood pressure because of the fear that I would end up
hurting them. It was a learning experience though and still is to this day. Im currently registered
as a Nurse Aide II and even after taking so many peoples blood pressure, I practice it and dont
give up on trying to be perfect at it. If I could take anything away from my experience in those
classes, its if at first you dont succeed, try and try again.