To think this nurse was unprofessional?

[ThisCoolOP]

So I went for an appointment at my GP surgery to try and verify the accuracy of two home blood pressure monitors we have in our house. The two monitors give virtually identical readings to each other for everyone in our family - but for my sister one reads 10 - 15 points lower than the other on thr systolic number.

During the appointment, my sister attempted to explain the situation and that she wanted to compare both machines against a manual reading. The nurse immediately told her to "just bin" one of the machines without any attempt to even compare it

The nurse then proceeded to only check one of the machines (the one that reads lower). When the machine displayed a reading of 150/100, she then performed a "manual check" and literally immediately stated "yeah 150/100". Might be just me, but this rapid confirmation seems like the nurse was simply just re-stating the reading she had seen on the machines screen (literally told me her reading was the exact same number) rather than conducting a genuine, independent manual verification. Her pre-judgement of which machine was correct was evident from the beginning, as she refused to consider checking the second machine, despite my clear explanation of the discrepancy of both machines for me, but identical readings for the rest of the family

As a result, I was left in the exact same position I was in before the appointment. I actually suffer from anxiety and came back in tears at how sharp and unhelpful she had been, and because it seemed she had made her mind up there and then she was only checking one machine and that was the correct one (despite them giving the same readings for everyone else), i don't trust what she told me at all

Maybe don't comment things like that without knowing someone's health background

Well then the nurse did just that. It's not her job to check various random products that people have brought from home.

As others have said, get a new bp machine. Check bp ( two or three readings a few minutes apart) morning and night and keep a record of them over a 7 day period.
The checking with both machines and on multiple family members isn't achieving anything, just feeding anxieties. The nurse would be unable to verify the accuracy of your two machines tbh.

150/100 is high but not outrageously so. An appointment to check and medicate if necessary is appropriate.

Trying to get the nurse to work out your machines is not.

no complaint needed.

I’m really confused- is it you or your sister? Is she a minor?
Regardless, if the discrepancy is 10/15 points on a BP reading it’s not a huge issue. Just use one monitor and stop stressing yourself out. I doubt either are broken it’s likely just natural fluctuation.
You sound like this is causing you some anxiety which might be misplaced.

she has checked one of the machines though and confirmed that it correlates with their machine... so use that machine. Slightly confused by who has the BP problem, but even if the systolic is 15-20 higher it's still in the same hypertension class so the treatment would be the same... if monitoring suggests it's a sustained thing.

Can I just add one thing.... at a GP appointment earlier this week for an unrelated problem (dodgy thyroid results before anyone says its unreasonable). BP was checked and high, but could be whitecoat so GP asked about home monitoring

Explained the discrepancy to GP, and she herself asked if had bought both machines in to be checked against a manual reading........ darent do that now after all the comments in here saying what disgusting behaviour it is :(

Explained the discrepancy to GP, and she herself asked if had bought both machines in to be checked against a manual reading........ darent do that now after all the comments in here saying what disgusting behaviour it is :(

But you did do it. And are moaning because you don't believe what the nurse said.

@ThisCoolOP you're still not answering the main question, why are you and your sister going to the bloody GP together?

The nurse did do a manual check, which confirmed it. Move on.

At our GP ( and my sisters) they don’t have the old type of sphyg they all have machines .

Hi @ThisCoolOP did the nurse actually perform a blood pressure reading with stethoscope?

No, because the nurse did not check both as the GP herself suggested the other day!

She didn't need to. She checked one and confirmed it was accurate.

Not with both machines she didn't! She had made her mind up from the beginning which was the correct one without checking both, and literally just read the exact same number back from the screen

Totally agree a very normal appointment for a practice nurse to cover, now they ask us to buy a BP monitor this kind of appointment for assistance sounds totally acceptable to me. It’s a major issue as with inaccurate readings this patient could be subscribed unwarranted and unnecessary medication. Loads of unhelpful carping replies on here

But then they should simply take the BP with their machine and treat accordingly , whether your machine is correct is immaterial to the consultation .

I’m confused. Initially you say the readings are different for your sister. Then later on you say the discrepancy is for you. Who is having an issue with different readings and is that the same person with high blood pressure?

if you’re worried take both readings and write down the average.

She had appeared to make her mind up from the beginning which was the correct one, that's the thing. She appeared to just read exactly the same number back as her mind was made up at the start

This isn’t patient centred care and is, I agree, a totally unhelpful and unproductive approach by the nurse involved ..🌷

You've made your mind up that happened, which is not the same as it happening. You can't even get straight who you are.

Not if whitecoat hypertension is the problem! Some people's blood pressure shoots up in a medical environment, which is why they suggested monitoring at home on your own machine

But did she do that machine and then do a manual and both were the same so that confirmed that machine was correct? In which case she’s correct, use that machine as she has demonstrated it’s accurate. The other machine is irrelevant. If you only had one machine you’d never have had this issue.

Your main problem was that you seem to think the nurse is lying about what the manual reading was? I’m not sure why you think that? Why would she lie?

I’d assume if her manual reading had been different to the machine she would just have said the machine was inaccurate and then maybe tried the second machine as well to see if that was more accurate than the first machine. But she didn’t need to do this.