An experiment to analyse trends in blood pressure readings measured by students at the European School of Osteopathy
Item
- Title
- An experiment to analyse trends in blood pressure readings measured by students at the European School of Osteopathy
- Author(s)
- Pressley, S
- Abstract
- This investigation was designed to determine; if clinical experience, age and/or gender can alter the number of erroneous Blood Pressure (BP) readings recorded by students at the European School of Osteopathy (ESQ). The writer proposed more guided tuition to be given to the groups of students that were most inclined to record erroneous BP readings, with the aim of increasing proficiency and thus conforming to the General Osteopathic Councils', _Osteopathic Practice Standards'. In this investigation 180 participants were separated into 30 groups of 6. Out of these S, 1 participant acted as a patient and 5 acted as ractitioners. The 5 practitioners each recorded the patients' BP reading once. The systolic and diastolic readings were both individually classified as ormotensive' or hypertensive' based on the World Health Organisations' (WHO) hypertension guidelines A patient was labelled as being hypertensive if 3 or more BP readings were classified as hypertensive. They were labelled as being normotensive if 3 or more BP readings were classified as normotensive. rroneous BP readings were described as _those that did not fit into the majority of readings'. Practitioners who measured _erroneous' readings were then analysed for comparisons between their age, gender and year of study. A contingency table was used to determine if there were differences between the umber of student practitioners who recorded erroneous BP readings that were; in year 3 compared to in year 4, aged over 30 compared to aged under 30 and male compared to female. Three chi2 tests were used to determine if these differences were due to chance. As the _age' chi2 test was considered to Results revealed that 8.6% of the 150 BP readings were erroneous. However 3fd year students, over 30 year old students and male students did not record any more erroneous BP readings than 4th year students, under 30 year old students or female students. For this reason, it is the writers' view that; as no trends were detected, all students should receive extra training in order for them to become proficient at their technique.There is a possibility that a type 2 error may have been committed as the sample size was too small. This view was supported by a remarkably low power for the gender Chi2 test and an invalid result for the 'age' chi2 test.At present this research stands as a pilot study for future research. In order to obtain significant results and decrease the potential for error, any future research would need to incorporate a larger sample size to include qualified practitioners, with a wider range of practitioner ages and experience.
- presented at
- European School of Osteopathy
- Date Accepted
- 2012
- Date Submitted
- 22.1.2013 16:23:35
- Type
- osteo_thesis
- Language
- English
- Submitted by:
- 62
- Pub-Identifier
- 15237
- Inst-Identifier
- 1229
- Keywords
- Blood pressure
- Recommended
- 0
- Item sets
- Thesis
Pressley, S, “An experiment to analyse trends in blood pressure readings measured by students at the European School of Osteopathy”, Osteopathic Research Web, accessed May 2, 2024, https://www.osteopathicresearch.com/s/orw/item/828