Obs. Short for observations. Initial clinical obs. are carried out for every patient and they include the vital signs; respiration rate, pulse rate, blood pressure and temperature. Other clinical obs. include oxygen saturation level, capillary refill duration, BM measurement and ECG (where relevant).
Generally speaking an EMT or Paramedic will decide which of the non-vital signs require further investigation, although our guidelines direct us to carry out many of them routinely. Two full sets of obs. are required if a patient is to be left at home or in the care of another person.
