Vital Signs: Temperature

Presented by Amy Shortall-Cardillo and Clinical Procedure Manual Review Board

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Video Runtime: 7 Minutes

Temperature is a fundamental vital sign that is used to monitor various conditions that can be addressed in home healthcare. Failure to obtain an accurate temperature can result in improper treatment. The purpose of measuring body temperature is to obtain an average temperature of the core body tissues. In this training, we’ll review the equipment and procedures for assessing patient temperature. This course includes

• Video demonstrations of procedures
• Downloadable procedure guide PDFs
• Tips and best practices for performing this procedure

This skill applies to all home health staff, including nurses, aides, and therapists. It is necessary for most home health patients, and aides will perform this assessment when it is listed on the aide’s plan of care.

Meet your instructors

Amy Shortall-Cardillo

Amy Shortall-Cardillo is the director of compliance and education at Concordia Community Support Services in Cabot, Pennsylvania. In this role, she is responsible for the quality, compliance, and education programs for multiple home health, hospice, and private duty agencies. Amy ensures that each agency is working…

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Clinical Procedure Manual Review Board

The MedBridge Clinical Procedure Manual Review Board ensures the development and maintenance of up-to-date and evidence-based clinical procedures. The review board is composed of leading nurse experts in the field: Danielle Pierotti, RN, PhD, CENP, and Margherita Labson, RN, BSN, MSHSA. The review board is involved in…

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Chapters & learning objectives

1. Introduction

This chapter includes an introduction to checking a patient’s temperature and information on all of the equipment needed for this assessment.

2. Procedure: Temporal Temperature

This chapter will provide a step-by-step procedure guide and video demonstration of checking a patient’s temporal temperature.

3. Procedure: Tympanic Temperature

This chapter will provide a step-by-step procedure guide and video demonstration of checking a patient’s tympanic temperature.

4. Procedure: Oral Temperature

This chapter will provide a step-by-step procedure guide and video demonstration of checking a patient’s oral temperature.

5. Procedure: Axillary Temperature

This chapter will provide a step-by-step procedure guide and video demonstration of checking a patient’s axillary temperature.

6. Tips, Precautions, and Care Considerations

This chapter provides tips and considerations for checking a patient’s temperature for home health aides.

7. Documentation Guidelines

This chapter provides recommendations on what to note when documenting a patient’s temperature.

8. Conclusion

This chapter includes learning assessment questions to assess the learner’s knowledge of skills covered in this course. A bibliography of referenced material is also included.