welcome to nursing school explain in this video on the focused cardiovascular assessment remember that we still always follow the assessment in the head to toe fashion but when we focus on the cardiovascular system not only do we assess the heart sounds with paying attention to all the different cardiac landmarks but we also have to assess the peripheral pulses which include the every pulse in the upper as well as lower extremities as well as the carotids and the abdominal and perhaps even the renal arteries to assess for breweries so let's take a look at how this is done hi how are you today all right my name is petra be your nurse i'll do your assessment right now is that okay yeah okay so let me do some hand hygiene here can you tell me your name steve jones and what year is it 2022 where are you at right now and what brings you in sometimes my heart feels like it's racing okay so we'll focus on um checking out your cardiovascular system here in more detail but first i'm going to shine a bright light into your eyes look straight above my nose please and now the other side good open up okay stick out your tongue good now i'm going to palpate your carotid arteries here so let me find them i just be a little bit uncomfortable and now the other side okay good now i'm going to listen to your neck arteries here and in order for me to heal here better i'm going to ask you just to take a deep breath and hold it when i'm ready okay take a deep breath and hold it okay exhale take a deep breath and hold it okay good breathe thank you so next i'm going to listen to your heart so i'm going to lower your gown just breathe nice and normally here okay okay good so next i'll listen to your lungs every time i touch my stethoscope to your skin please take a nice deep breath in and out through the nose i also need to listen to your back is it easier for you to sit up or to roll towards your side i'll set it up harder okay so i'll have your roll towards me then please here we go and the same thing so i'm going to take put my stethoscope on your skin every time i do that please take a nice deep breath in i see you have a little redness there okay that's nice and blanchable well make sure we put a pillow behind you to offload you so nice deep breath can you roll just a little bit more thank you and one more good okay go ahead let me just take a look at the rest of the skin okay go ahead and roll back onto your back please we can slide your gown back up and next i'm going to look at your abdomen here and first again i'm going to listen to one of the major blood vessels here so just breathe nice and normally okay and now i listen to your bowel sounds just again nice normal breaths when was the last time you had a bowel movement this morning okay and next i'm going to palpate here let me know if you feel any tenderness so far so good yeah okay i'm going to press a little harder now let me know how that feels any pain that's okay okay and your bladder is not distended okay then let me go ahead and check your upper extremities can i see your hands here on both sides can you squeeze my fingers as hard as you can thank you let me check your circulation here other side let me check the rest of the fingers over here too okay and i'll check your pulses but they're nice and strong and equal and now your brachial pulses okay excellent so next i also need to assess your femoral pulses which are kind of like in the groin crease is that okay yeah all right so i'll just keep you as covered as i can here and let me see the other side very good so let me cover you up here and i'll move on and assess your lower extremities so let me get you uncovered here first i'm going to check all your pulses here are you able to bend your knee on this left side for a moment thank you actually can you bring it down just a little bit great and now let me check the other one please okay great you can straighten your legs check your circulation down here please push down against my hands like on a gas pedal pull your toes to your nose okay great and then let me have you bend your knee kick out against my hand here and pull back great relax let me see the other one kick out against my hand and pull back great and now i'll assess for some swelling down here so a little pressure on your shin and the other side okay that's it we're all done thank you for watching this video on the focused cardiovascular assessment please also make sure to check out the other assessment videos in the physical assessment playlist that go over different body systems when the patient is admitted with a certain problem that focuses on a specific body part thanks for watching nursing school explained and see you soon