Why do people use two or three fingers instead of one to check a pulse?

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Also please tell me if Biology is the wrong flair

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

More fingers equals more surface areas. It’s easier to feel the pulse across a larger surface area (more finger pads) than a smaller one (just one finger) The signal becomes more distinguished and thus easier to tell.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Going off of first response, sometimes with pressure, you can end up feeling your own pulse when pushing down. Using multiple fingers reduces this issue.

*Including only because people on this site enjoy splitting hairs.. it’s not usually an issue either way because you can very easily feel a pulse with one finger depending on where you are palpating, but this is somewhat of a norm in teaching and given different calloquial reasoning depending on who you ask.