Important Nursing Grades Or Scales To Remember Part 2
This is the second set of the most important Nursing grades or scales that every medical practitioner and aspiring nurse should know in his or her studies. With this, your Nursing life will become a lot clearer, not to mention, a lot easier. By simply knowing these scales or grades by heart, these will place you way ahead of your colleagues. These grading system are not only used at school but also during the actual work experience in the hospitals and other related areas. So nurses and friends, hope you enjoy reading the material below:
- APGAR Score

a. heart rate
0 absent
1 <100bpm
2 >100bpm
b. respiratory effort
0 absent
1 slow, weak cry
2 good, strong cry
c. muscle tone
0 flaccid
1 some flexion
2 well flexed extremities
d. reflex irritability
0 no response
1 grimace
2 cough/sneeze/cry
e. color
0 blue/pale
1 acrocyanotic
2 completely pink
Thus, if:
0-4 grave condition
5-7 needs intensive care
7and above NB doing well
- Urinalysis (albumin test using acetic acid)
negative – no albumin
trace - mildly clear to liquid opaque
+ to ++ – frankly cloudy
+++ – white like an egg white
- Urinalysis (sugar test using Benedict’s solution)
Negative - no change in color
Trace - blue green
1+ to 2+ - yellow green
3+ to 4+ – orange yellow
- Pain Rating Scale
1-3 - mild
4-7 - moderate
8-10 - severe
- Breast Cancer Staging
Stage 1 less than 2cm, confined in the breast
Stage 2 up to 5cm, axillary spread
Stage 3 greater than 5cm, chest spread
Stage 4 distant metastasis
- Placental Grading by Ultrasound (UTZ)
0 = 12-24 weeks
1 = 30-32 weeks
2 = 36 weeks
3 = 38 weeks
- Ankle clonus in eclampsia
Mild = 2 movements
Moderate = 3-5 movements
Severe = over 6 movements
- Age of Gestation (AOG) with fundal height monitoring
- Fundal height at symphysis pubis =12th week gestation
- Midway between symphysis pubis & umbilicus = 16th wk. gestation
- At the umbilicus = 20th wk.
- At the xyphoid process = 36th wk.
- Stress test (Oxytocin Challenge Test)
(+) / (+) window / late deceleration / Abnormal
(-) / (-) window / no deceleration / Normal
- Kick Counts
(+) / Normal / 3 or more movements in 1 hour
(-) / AbN°/2 or more movements in 1 hour
- Classification of perineal laceration
1st degree laceration at the perineal skin
2nd degree at the muscle of perineum
3rd degree rectal sphincter
4th degree lumen of the rectum
