Vital Signs & Patient Assessment
📋 What it is
Vital signs — heart rate, breathing, temperature, blood pressure — are quick measures of how the body is doing.
🗣️ Coach says
VITAL SIGNS are the body’s basic dashboard: heart rate (pulse), breathing rate, temperature, and blood pressure. They’re quick, measurable clues to how someone is doing right now. A change in vitals can be the first sign a body system needs attention — which is why nurses check them constantly.
🧠 Memory hook
Vital signs = the body’s dashboard: pulse · breathing · temperature · blood pressure. Quick health clues.
😂 Giggle
Why did the bandage break up with the wound?
It felt too attached!
😲 Whoa!
A resting heart rate can reveal fitness — very fit athletes sometimes have resting pulses around 40 beats a minute, far below the typical 60–100.
✅ Quick check: Name two of the body’s vital signs.
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
Any two of: heart rate (pulse), breathing rate, temperature, blood pressure.
Vital signs are core measurable indicators of body function.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Take your pulse for 15 seconds and multiply by 4 — you just measured a vital sign.