When my father got hospitalized with a mild stroke, he had a pulse oximeter attached to his finger. That time, I have no idea what a pulse oximeter was but when my mom and I got hospitalized, I really started to ponder what the relevance of this medical device is. So I made a little research on what this little clip attached to a medical monitor was.A pulse oximeter measures the oxygen saturation of the patient’s blood. This is usually attached to a medical monitor especially during surgery so that nurses can keep an eye on the patient’s oxygenation always. The function of such device is to show the percentage of arterial hemoglobin in the oxyhemoglobin configuration. In layman’s term, it is the device used to see if the body is oxygenated properly or need supplemental oxygen.Today, there are portable pulse oximeter available in the market. This is highly recommended if you have patients staying inside the house or if you are traveling with them.
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I work at a residential/teaching facility for adults with MR/DD (mental retardation and developmental disabilities). We have one lady in my home who is on O2 24 hrs/day. Most of our ladies have to have one fingernail left unpainted so they can check their O2 sats with one of these devices.
It seems there is a lot of infor out there about baby monitors so it was great to come across this post, very helpful, thanks