Critical care: the eight vital signs of patient monitoring

Abstract

Nurses have traditionally relied on five vital signs to assess their patients: temperature, pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and oxygen saturation. However, as patients hospitalised today are sicker than in the past, these vital signs may not be adequate to identify those who are clinically deteriorating. This paper describes clinical issues to consider when measuring vital signs as well as proposing additional assessments of pain, level of consciousness and urine output, as part of routine patient assessment.