In this week's video we're going to be looking at these pulse oximeters we're going to be looking
at how it works, we're going to look at how to use them, we're going to be looking at how to
use them to monitor your COVID 19 symptoms, we're going to be looking at buying guides we're going
to look at analyzing readings and loads more so what we're waiting for let's begin now i
appreciate this is going to be quite a long video so if there's any specific information that you
are looking for i'm going to leave a chapter down below you can click on whichever section you want
click in that description click on whichever chapter you want which has got the information
that you're looking for and watch the video or if you're really interested in portfolios watch the
whole video and at the end of it you will become a pulse oximeter pro okay so let's begin with
what is a pulse oximeter surprise oximeters are a medical device that fit on part of your body they
come in different shapes and sizes but essentially what they do is they measure two things
first of all they measure your heart rate so that's how fast your heart is beating and second
of all they measure the saturation your oxygen saturation which means how much oxygen is exactly
in your blood at that moment in time so most pulse oximeters that we use have a clip-like function
like so it's got spring in the back so when you push it it opens and closes you pop your finger
in it and then the good news is that it uses no needles or anything painful like that to tell
you your results to tell you oxygen saturation and your heart rate so it uses what we call red light
and infrared light infrared light we've seen it all the time you guys have it at home you've
got a remote control for example that is using infrared light so a very basic explanation both of
them types of lights are passed through it passes through your skin and it's a sensor on the other
side which measures exactly how much of this light passes through from this it's able to calculate
the ratio of light that passes through which is able to calculate your oxygen saturation and your
heart rate that was super simplified but that's all you need to know so pulse oximeters have been
used for many years in many different scenarios you may have seen them used in ambulances during
surgery in hospital we use them in medical practices during acute care to assess the
patient to see how they're doing and most recently pulse oximeters are being used to monitor COVID
19 symptoms so this means if you suffered from COVID 19 symptoms or you've currently got COVID 19
your healthcare professional may have given you a pulse oximeter to use at the moment so they can
monitor your symptoms you see the problem with COVID 19 is that many patients end up suffering
with something called silent hypoxia so hypoxia is when your oxygen levels are low and silent because
it's not giving many feet symptoms it's not even much feedback to you okay it's not making you
aware that you're hypoxic so your oxygen levels are low unfortunately this is something that's
happening with a lot of COVID 19 patients so their oxygen levels are dropping and they're getting no
symptoms to show them that this is happening which is where the pulse oximeter comes in handy because
it's able to analyze your oxygen saturations and tell you what your results are and by doing this
by monitoring your oxygen saturation you're able to keep a diary and also to know when to seek
medical advice now i'm going to go through all of this very shortly in this video but that was
just a brief explanation of everything that's going on so let's now dive in so let's begin
with using your pulse oximeter i'm going to give you a quick guide on how to use these properly
the first thing you need to remember before you use a pulse oximeter you need to rest
you need to rest for at least five minutes this is going to mean that your heart rate is going to
drop so you're going to relax more and also your oxygen saturation is going to normalize as well
so first things first rest for five minutes before we do anything so once you're fully rested we can
now move on to step one i know we're super excited to use the pulse oximeter but we need to wash our
hands first this is super important because if any dirt or anything like that on the hands
it's going to affect our results in addition to this if you wear nail varnish or if you have
forced nails or anything like that you need to remove them again it's going to affect our result
because you know how this works you know how it works through the light and how it checks the
ratio to actually calculate your oxygen saturation and your heart rate so anything like that is going
to reduce our results so remove them all wash the hands another quick tip as well is to wash them in
warm water okay because if we have got low blood flow in our hands because the hands are freezing
they're going to give us a lower result than it actually is so wash your hands in warm water this
is going to help get that blood flowing as well and if your hands are still cold give them a nice
rub give them a quick rub for a couple of minutes just to get that heat in them okay so moving on
to step number two we're now ready to use our pulse oximeter so the next thing we're gonna do
is you're gonna put your hand on your chest like this okay it can be your right hand it
can be a left hand it really doesn't matter okay after it's steady for a bit you're going to put
the pulse oximeter on your index finger that's the thing that's next to your thumb okay some
pulse oximeters you need to switch them on mine for example here that i use you just put it on
and it switches on automatically okay it really depends on which device you have so i'm going to
place it on your index finger like so and leave it there it will switch on in a couple of seconds
mine beeps as well quite annoyingly like that i've never understood how to switch it off so
it keeps beeping like that with your pulse rate my pulse rate is quite high right now because i'm
very excited that i'm filming and you're going to keep it like that for a minute okay you're
going to keep it like that for a minute until it steadies out you're going to keep looking at
it make sure you know exactly which one is your oxygen saturation and which one is your pulse
because they don't really put them out very clearly and the last thing you want is to read
your pulse as your oxygen saturation okay so leave it on for a minute if it's steady
then note those levels down know your oxygen saturation down and your heart rate
if it's unsteady after a minute then look at it for another five seconds and note down the highest
readings that you get so the highest pulse oxygen saturation you get and the highest heart rate
that you get okay so it might actually analyze that at the end and gives you a result i think
it's saying i've got poor signal at the moment but measure again but that's because i was talking but
you're not meant to talk you meant to stay silent and just do it and then write down your results
in your diary now with regards to keeping a diary you should try and do your tests at the same time
each day i'd advise you to do it three times a day minimum but also if at any point you're feeling a
bit unwell if you're feeling a bit different or a bit weird just do some more tests as well and
note them in your diary too i know you're thinking you're probably thinking well where do i get this
diary from well not to worry abraham pharmacist i've got your pack i'm gonna leave it in the
description below a nice link to an nhs link which is the diary for you you can print it out you can
do it online whatever is easier for you okay so now that we've used our pulse oximeter remember
there's gonna be two numbers that are written down but what do they mean what do these readings mean
so it's really important that you know which one is your pulse rate and which one is your
oxygen saturation so really get used to reading your machine it's always a bit difficult when
you first put your finger in it because you're sometimes looking at it upside down so really
get used to knowing where the numbers are and what they mean so let's start with the heart rate okay
sometimes on the machine it will write pr which means pulse rate or it will write bpm which
means beats per minute okay all of them are the same thing so heart rate uh pulse rate bpm beats
per minute they're all the same thing so it's essentially telling you how many beats your heart
is beating per minute okay and this will usually be ideally between 50 to 90 okay that's the normal
range the next thing you need to look at is the oxygen saturation so remember it's a percentage
value so it's going to usually have a percent sign followed by spo2 and o2 we all know is oxygen
okay so that's showing our oxygen saturation and ideally this number should be between 95 to 100
so now let's talk about these results let's talk about the oxygen saturation let's talk about the
worst case scenario first so the red light the super important one that you all need to know
so if your oxygen saturation is 92 or less so 9 2 92 or less repeat that test again
if again it is below it's either 90 or less you need to seek medical attention urgently so
either take yourself to accident emergency the emergency department or call 999 for an
ambulance if you can't take yourself there this is super important because you are going to need
urgent medical assistance you need medical help straight away this is super important that you
remember that so 92 or less is red that's the one that's the most important thing that you need to
take from this video now another thing to mention is that you should also ring 999
or go to a e if you're struggling to breathe for any reason you're feeling seriously ill
you're feeling really breathless all of a sudden it's getting worse you're struggling to speak
you're struggling to say a full sentence whilst resting because you're running out of air you just
feel like you can't breathe these are all symptoms and indicators that you should see medical help
urgently that's super important please remember that now in addition to all of these there's
more reasons again why you should seek urgent medical attention i'm going to leave them all here
somewhere we're going to have them listed all here but please remember read the description below as
well i'm going to explain them in even more detail but get used to these remember them it's really
important for your own health and safety that you know these and when to seek medical advice
urgently if you're getting any of these sort of symptoms you need to be calling 999 immediately
or going to a e immediately because you're going to need some urgent medical assistance
so now that we've gone through the red light emergency scenarios where you need to get medical
assistance urgently i want to go through the amber scenarios the amble ones are again they're serious
but they don't require medical emergency treatment yeah what that mean by that is you don't need to
ring 999 or go to the emergency department but if you've got any of these or amber symptoms
you need to speak to your doctor or you need to speak to nhs 101 and make them aware of these
symptoms you need to make them aware so they're actively monitoring you as well okay this is
super important so the things you need to look out for is if you're feeling more ill with time
and if it's lasting for two hours or more this could be a sign that they need to be aware of
or when you're standing up if you're feeling very breathless and struggling to breathe when
you're standing up again you need to make your healthcare professionals aware another thing
is if you've been ill for three weeks or more again you need to make them aware of this
and lastly is your oxygen saturation if your oxygen saturation is between 93 to 94
you need to make them aware of it and especially if it's staying like that so after an hour or
two hours you're constantly monitoring it and it's staying around 93 to 94 percent again this
isn't the amber light needs to be flicking in your head i need to think i need to let my doctor know
i need to let nhs woman know about this so you can be actively monitored this is very important and
again i'm going to break it down in more detail in the description if any of this doesn't make sense
at all read the description for more detail on it all you should also check in with your doctor if
at any point you don't feel like your normal self so for example if you start to struggle with daily
tasks find that you don't want to eat as much you feel weak or tired or are peeing less than usual
now i am going to leave more information in the description below as i've said but the take home
message is if anything makes you feel something is wrong then please speak to your health care
professional now if you have been given a pulse oximeter from your doctor's surgery because
you've been diagnosed with a positive COVID 19 test it might be one of the reasons behind it
might be that they're worried that you might be at risk of having more symptoms associated
with COVID 19 so you might be at higher risk and you might be more vulnerable because of it which
is why they've given you the pulse oximeter to monitor you actively so you can monitor the oxygen
saturation levels constantly and keep them updated if there's any changes and because of this high
risk level it's really important that you do make your friends and family aware of it so give them
a ring send them a message or whatever ask them to give you a call every day or so just to see
how you're doing because just by talking to you they can also get an understanding of how you're
doing on that day and how you're progressing if you're getting worse if you're getting better
it's really important to involve other people via telephone calls obviously not in person
just so they can monitor you as well i think this is a really good precautionary measure to take
just by speaking to your friends and family every day especially whilst you've got COVID 19 and you
and you're going to be getting better hopefully but also they can listen to you they can listen
to how you're breathing when you're speaking on the phone they can listen to see how you're
progressing like i said earlier but it's just an extra precautionary measure that you can take
which is really really helpful now if you do want more information on COVID 19 care and any advice
around it i will leave loads more information in the description below i'm also going to
leave some nhs links which have got loads of really helpful information for any patients
who suffer with COVID 19. if you haven't read up about it if you want more information on it
please do click on that link and find out more now another thing that i'd just like to mention is to
please continue using your pulse oximeter for at least 14 days after you get the symptoms of COVID
19. the reason i'm saying this is sometimes with COVID 19 patients they tend to get a lot better
after seven days let's say and then they stop using the pulse oximeter
and sometimes after you've got better you can't have a dip again and get worse these symptoms can
get worse it's really important that you continue using the pulse oximeter for at least 14 days when
your symptoms first begin this is really important and it's going to just give us that extra bit of
information when it comes to your care when you've done with it when you're all finished and you're
fully recovered from COVID 19 you can then put it in the bag that it came in give it a quick clean
and hand it back to your surgery however they've explained for you to do that so i really hope
you found this information useful i think pulse oximeters are definitely a good thing to have
and i think even if your surgery doesn't give you one it would definitely be worth purchasing one
the reason being is it's kind of like the way i think about it is when you think of thermometers
or blood pressure cuffs that people have in their home as a healthcare professional we now get
patients who have pulse oximeters at home it makes our life a lot easier when we're speaking to them
they can do a test there and then on the phone for us let us know their saturation levels and
it's just another aid that can help with clinical diagnosis i guess they're relatively inexpensive
as well i think they usually cost about 20 to 30 pounds these ones that the clippy ones
are a lot cheaper to buy these are the ones that we've been using for a long time and they will
last you a lifetime as long as you're careful with them i don't treat mine very well they don't last
me too long but i do get a lot of use out of them as well i think one important thing as well if you
are wanting to purchase one because i'm getting a lot of questions about these from from the viewers
it's just to look for the ce sign i don't know if you can see that i'll try and make that um
focus so you can see that ce sign that's super important that it's got that and that just means
that it buys the european regulations so it's been regulated and it works properly please make
sure you got that sign there are also other pulse oximeters as well there's the ring ones that are
now quite popular but they're a lot more expensive you kind of put them on your finger like so
as if you're wearing a ring these are a lot more expensive usually over 100 200 pounds
but they can link to your phone and you know you can really analyze that data if you're really into
that there's there's also other ringy ones which are a bit more complex but to be honest with you
i would just go with these these are simple they work really well they're cheap they're inexpensive
everyone can have and they'll last you so long um that's the end of this week's video i really hope
you found this information helpful you now know all about pulse oximeters you now know how they
work you now know how to analyze the results you know what to do in the red amber scenarios you
now know when to seek medical advice which is really important thank you for watching you're
going to be a pulse oximeter pronoun so tell your friends tell your family tell your loved ones tell
everyone because you know what there is to know um i will see you next week 4 p.m gmt and as always
sending awesome vibes hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make sure to
click that like follow or subscribe button now to stay up to date with new weekly videos you