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Nurses being the integral part of our health system, need to be equipped with all the good gadgets. Monitoring patient’s vitals is one of the major parts of their role on the hospital floor. While monitoring the vitals, all the staff nurses needed to have quick and efficient gadgets, including thermometers.
Thermometers in hospital use, that is for nurses or even for doctors is a must have gadget. Every shift round, whether it’s morning, evening or night shift, one needs to keep a record of the temperature of all the patients.
Forehead thermometer is a type of quick thermometer, based on an infrared thermometer. Which works while the nurse can be at a very distance. Keeping the covid SOPs in mind, maintaining the distance is an important protocol while monitoring the patient. That is why one should know about the best thermometer choice that is non contact and can be used on forehead to measure the temperature.
1- iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer
Thermometer gadget with good reviews of upto 90%, is very much reliable for taking recordings of the subject. Nurses can use forehead thermometers with no touch as per name being suggested. I-health has a good name among the health community for its gadgets. This very thermometer is quick to respond, low cost and efficient as well.
It has 3 inbuilt sensors, which are correlated to work effectively. One is an ultra sensitive infrared sensor, which collects hundreds of data points from the surface.
Surface in this case will be the forehead. Second is built in distant sensory, to emit energy of different waves to have its reflection. The 3rd sensor will collect the energy points, those will be converted to give readings on the screen.
Ihealth has no beep sound system in it, which may be sort of good, while beeping gadgets may sometimes be irritating for the users who do frequent checks like nurses. In this case you have to rely on the vibration sensor of the i health thermometer. Whenever it gets vibrated, you can take it off from the patient’s forehead.
Pros
- Cost effective
- Fast in taking readings
- Very much precise
- No beep
- Detailed user manual
Cons
- Sometime inbuilt vibration may be missed
- User error for beginners
- Does not work in case the subject is not cooperative, like kids who don't stand still.
2- HoMedics Non-Contact Infrared Forehead Thermometer for nurses
Multi purpose non contact thermometer is also based on infrared technology to detect the temperature from forehead thermometer. HoMedics is meant to be used on the human body, while you can also rely on it for temperature measurement of some liquids as well, like water, milk etc.
It gives a lot of precision with three different colors displayed. Green color display will be shown for normal temperature, yellow for low grade fever, while red for higher grade temperature. It has an inbuilt system of beep alarm whenever it picks a high grade temperature.
It has the capacity to store upto 50 readings in it. This feature is good when you want to know the serial recordings for temperature monitoring. Besides, you can number the patients and then later on note one by one.
Long term battery, easy switch between celsius and fahrenheit and auto shut off feature makes it a good item for home and professional use.
Homedic is an easy to use instrument with a wide variety of features one needs to have. Quick to respond, good LED display and contact free gadget is all what a duty nurse needs.
Pros
- Easy to handle
- Different color grades
- High temperature alarm
- Multi purpose thermometer
Cons
- None of much significance
3- FORA IR42 Medical Grade Thermometer
Here is another forehead thermometer that is meant for non contact purpose to promote hygienic SOPs. Quick to read while you focus it just for 1 to 2 seconds on the forehead. Besides, it’s very light weight, accurate and reliable as well.
It is a sort of multipurpose thermometer, which you can use for babies, infants, patients and in addition to that, on objects too. Just switch the mode and enjoy measuring the temperature of your room, car or boiling milk.
Distance required for the proper working is around 3 to 5 cm, that is reasonable to maintain the distance and to avoid disturbing a sleeping infant. It will alarm as soon as it senses the high grade temperature to let you know about the fever.
It can store upto 30 recently measured values. This is good to have sequential measurements of recordings. Besides, it can accelerate the process of screening too, by giving count to every subject and then noting them down one by one. Plus, the alarm system in it can be a sort of filter when you are doing it for covid screening.
Pros
- Affording price
- Good non contact/hygienic tool.
- Stores upto 30 readings
- Alarm system for higher temperature recordings.
- Easy switch between celsius and fahrenheit
- Multipurpose thermometers can be used on objects as well.
Cons
- Not of much significance.
4- Tommee Tippee Quick Read Forehead Thermometer
Suggesting another product in the category of forehead thermometer. Here is a Tommee Tippee non contact thermometer, which works via pointing it on the forehead. Just turn it on and shoot the forehead, a reading will be picked up. This reading will be shown on the LED screen for one minute of standby time and then it will auto shut off.
It can store upto 25 temperature readings in it, so you can compare the previous vital monitoring as well.
Nicely designed thermometer is a good choice for home and professional use by the nurses. It can also pick up the surface temperature from milk and other food products. This multipurpose use is also an edge available in a few thermometers based on infrared technology.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Clever design
- Beep upon reading measurement
- Multipurpose, can be used to measure temperature of food items as well.
- Cost effective
- Company based warranty.
Cons
- Beep sometime wakens up the baby
5- Anthsania Touchless Forehead Thermometer
Anthsania non contact forehead thermometer is another choice for nurses to have it for their professional use. It comes with a lot of cool options and modes. Multipurpose gadgets can be used on humans and other objects as well. Measure the temperature of baby food or room, just click on the button and measure the readings.
It is the cheap option among the other thermometers, with the same range of coverage and efficiency.
The LED screen switches color based on temperature measured. Green shows the normal temperature, orange indicates the increased temperature, while red will alarm you for very high recordings.
In built beep is set to have after every recording, the user can turn it on/off, the option is available in the mode options. It has 30 seconds of standby time, and will auto shut off when not used for 30 seconds. It can store upto 99 previous recordings as well.
Pros
- Cheap option
- Green/ orange/ red LED display
- Multipurpose for subject and object as well.
- Beep can be turned on/off, as per needed.
- 30 seconds auto shut off
- 99 readings can be stored.
Cons
- Nil significant.
Choosing the best forehead thermometer for nurses
Measuring Unit of a thermometer. Celsius vs Fahrenheit
Different hospital setups have different protocols. While there are thermometers with dual measurement options. The one with best suitability is the Fahrenheit scale. As practicing it makes reflexes quick upon looking at the temperature record.
Here is the guide if you are interested in buying a best rectal thermometer for home.
Best suitable thermometers for infants
Being a nurse, one should know the best thermometer gadget for different groups of ages. Like, infants should be checked with a rectal thermometer, as it is easy to measure and will give very much accurate reading.
Forehead thermometers don’t have the same efficacy with all age groups. Therefore, incase of infants measurement of fever, you should opt for a rectal probe thermometer.
Cleaning and safety
Cleaning the gadget, that too a medical gadget should be kept in mind before buying. As per already discussed, few age groups like infants should not be checked with a forehead thermometer. While using a rectal thermometer, one should know the cleaning and safety protocols.Pushing the rectal thermometer too hard will make the baby injured and suffer for many days. Besides, change the probe tip every time you insert to have a check on pyrexia.
Need of forehead thermometer in current situation of Covid-19
As Covid-19 started to spread towards the end of 2019, it is still prevailing and spreading with aggressive speed and mutations. One of the crucial signs one can detect is its temperature. That’s why many hospital setups are having nursing staff at their OPD to filter the cases with high temperature. Forehead thermometer is the best gadget among other probe based thermometers, in other cases one needs to have very close interaction with the subject. While in the forehead thermometer case you don’t need to be in close contact just to have a check on fever.
Every health worker is need to have a quick check forehead thermometer before examining the patients, that is to rule out active infection of any kind.
What are the other types of thermometers
1- Mercury thermometer
Mercury thermometers are older fashion, based on melting temperature of the mercury. Mercury gets melted and expands with increase of temperature. It’s a very crude way of measuring temperature,even laymen can have very difficulty to take readings from it.
2- Digital thermometer
These are probe based digital thermometers, inserting probe into armpit will give us the reading in some digits which are viewable on LED screen.
3- Ear thermometer
Ear canal temperature is one of the good clues towards patients’ vitals. But the downside is wrong placement and canal blockage due to wax impaction.
4- Pacifier thermometer
Suitable and with easy to use thermometers, pacifiers can easily be used with infants fond of pacifiers usually in the age group above 3 months.
How to use non contact forehead thermometers
Simple. Hold aim press
I have a Powlaken meat thermometer that stopped working. It will work after placing a fresh battery in, but the thermometer battery drains completely overnight. This is with the probe being folded back in after use. Please advise.