Check your hospital policy. Every hospital shoud have one. Ours is once every 8 hrs. unless Md. orders specify differently. remember it's your nursing responsibility and license to follow up on any abnormal values.

In our hospital on the Med/Surg units we check vital signs every 8 hours unless the MD orders specify different. In ICU, Telemetry, and our OBS unit, we generally check vital signs every 4 hours. In addition, we increase the frequency of vital signs according to the patient's condition. Our hospital has a protocol for postop vitals... Q 15min x 4, Q 30 min x 2, Q 1H x 4 then back to regular.

Susan

How about after IV pain med is given at the bedside---how often are vital signs monitored then?