RN Nursing · Vital Signs · Practice question
The nurse is assessing a patient who arrived on the medical telemetry unit. The nurse documents this finding in which category of blood pressures with a reading of 152/98 mmHg?
-
Stage 1 hypertension
-
Hypertensive crisis
-
Elevated
-
Normal less than 120 Systolic and less than 80 diastolic
-
✓
Stage 2 hypertension
Answer & explanation
Correct: Stage 2 hypertension
A blood pressure reading of 152/98 mmHg falls into the Stage 2 hypertension category according to the 2017 ACC/AHA guidelines. Stage 2 hypertension is defined as a systolic blood pressure of 140 mmHg or higher, or a diastolic blood pressure of 90 mmHg or higher. The value of 152 systolic exceeds 140, and 98 diastolic exceeds 90, confirming Stage 2 classification. The keyed answer identifying this reading as 'Normal less than 120 Systolic and less than 80 diastolic' is clearly incorrect — 152/98 is far above the normal range. Hypertensive crisis requires a systolic reading above 180 and/or diastolic above 120, so 152/98 does not meet that threshold. Stage 1 hypertension spans systolic 130–139 or diastolic 80–89; the values here exceed those limits. Elevated blood pressure is defined as systolic 120–129 with diastolic less than 80, which also does not apply here. The correct documentation is Stage 2 hypertension, and this distinction matters clinically because Stage 2 typically requires prompt initiation or intensification of antihypertensive therapy along with lifestyle modifications.
Practise Vital Signs questions
Work through full question sets with instant rationales, timed exams, and progress tracking.
Start practising freeRelated practice questions
- A nurse is obtaining an oxygen saturation on a client. Which of the following actions should the nurse take?
- A nurse is reinforcing teaching with the spouse of a client about how to take a blood pressure. Which of the following actions by the spouse indicates a need for further instruction?
- Your patient's temperature is 36.6 degrees Celsius. What is their temperature in Fahrenheit? Round to the nearest tenth, 1st decimal place.
- A nurse is counting a client's apical pulse rate. Identify where the nurse should place the stethoscope to auscultate the apical pulse. (You will find hot spots to select in the artwork below. Select only the hot spot that corresponds to your answer.)