Abstract
A questionnaire concerning the detection and management of hypertension was presented to 265 hospital doctors, 114 medical students and 59 student nurses. Of these 75% were completed. Although only 76% thought that routine measurement was necessary in outpatients, 92% of respondents thought that blood pressure (BP) should be measured routinely in all in-patients. A total of 17% of all doctors and 11% of physicians indicated that they would not use drug treatment until the diastolic BP exceeded 105 mmHg. Thirty-four per cent of respondents still use diastolic phase IV and 84% felt that BP should be measured 2-4 times before deciding on treatment but the posture of the patient (lying, sitting or standing) during recording was inconsistent. Seventy-seven per cent of respondents indicated that they recorded BP to the nearest 5 mmHg and 4% to the nearest 10 mmHg. Despite the literature on the subject, there are still widely differing opinions amongst medical staff on how to record BP and at what level it should be treated.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Feher M., Harris-St John K., Lant A. Blood pressure measurement by junior hospital doctors--a gap in medical education? Health Trends. 1992;24(2):59–61. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Manek S., Rutherford J., Jackson S. H., Turner P. Persistence of divergent views of hospital staff in detecting and managing hypertension. Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1984 Nov 24;289(6456):1433–1434. doi: 10.1136/bmj.289.6456.1433. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Short D. The diastolic dilemma. Br Med J. 1976 Sep 18;2(6037):685–686. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.6037.685. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Taylor L., Foster M. C., Beevers D. G. Divergent views of hospital staff on detecting and managing hypertension. Br Med J. 1979 Mar 17;1(6165):715–716. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.6165.715. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]