In this instructional video, nursing educator Christina Rafano explains the newborn APGAR assessment, a critical component of nursing education and clinical practice. She outlines the purpose of the APGAR score, its timing (assessments at 1 and 5 minutes, with a repeat at 10 minutes if the 5‑minute score is below 7), and the five categories—Appearance (skin color), Pulse (heart rate), Grimace (reflex irritability), Activity (muscle tone), and Respirations (breathing). For each category, she details the scoring criteria from 0 to 2, providing specific thresholds such as a heart rate >100 bpm for a score of 2 and the distinction between normal coloration and acrocyanosis. Rafano emphasizes that the APGAR score is a snapshot of the newborn’s immediate condition and does not predict long‑term outcomes, serving instead to guide immediate nursing interventions. The video is aimed at nursing students preparing for exams, with repeated encouragement to engage with the content and request further maternity, labor‑and‑delivery, or pediatric videos.
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Hey there, friend. In this video, we are going to break down the newborn APGAR score so you can always get those questions right on your nursing school exams. Now, if you want more videos on maternity, labor and delivery or pediatric nursing, write love in the comments below and let me know and I can make that happen for you. Hey there, friend. My name is Christina Rafano from nursingschoolofsuccess.com and today we are talking about the APGAR score. I've received several emails from students asking for more maternity, labor and delivery and pediatric nursing videos. So here we are. The APGAR score is a newborn assessment that you must know about in nursing school. If you don't get the chance to actually do an APGAR assessment at clinical, you absolutely will be tested on it on one of your nursing school exams. So, so today we're gonna break it all down super simple for you. So like I said, the APGAR assessment is one of the assessments that you will do on a new baby, a newborn. This assessment is done one minute after the baby is born and then again at five minutes after the baby is born. And it just tells you how that baby is doing. So APGAR stands for appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, and respiratory. Each of these categories is ranked on a scale from 0 to 2, 0 meaning that the baby is not doing so well in that particular category, and a 2 meaning that they are doing really well in that category. So let's walk through each of these. The A in APGAR stands for appearance, and this means skin color. So what color is the baby? A score of 2 means that the baby's skin is a normal tone for them. Their hands and feet. Feet should be pink. A score of 1 indicates that their body is a normal skin color for them, but their hands and their feet are bluish. And this is called acrocyanosis, where the hands and the feet are that kind of bluish color. And a score of zero means that this poor little baby is blue or pale all over. Now, the P in APGAR stands for pulse, and this means heart rate. So what is their heart rate? A heart rate of greater than 100 beats per minute would give a score of 2. If it's less than 100 beats per minute, it's a score of 1. And if there's no pulse, it's a score of 0. Now make sure you caught that. If there is a pulse, but it's just less than 100 beats per minute, it's a score of 1. A score of 0 is only given if there's no pulse. Present. Now, the G in APGAR stands for grimace. And this one is testing reflexes or reflex irritability. Basically, how does our little bundle of joy respond to stimulation? They would receive a score of 2 if they cried with stimulation and they were moving around a lot. A score of one if their face was grimacing but they didn't make other movements to the stimulation and they'd get a score of zero if they did not respond to the stimulus. Now the other A stands for activity. And here we are looking at their muscle tone. So did they flex their muscles and move their body around? A score of 2 is given if they flex their arms and legs and are pretty active. A score of 1 is given if they kind of flex their arms and legs and a score of zero if they're limp. And finally, the R stands for respirations, meaning how well are they breathing? Now A score of 2 would indicate that they have a strong cry. So they're breathing pretty well, obviously, because their cry is really, really strong. Now, A score of 1 is given if their breathing is weak and a score of zero if their breathing is absent. Now I know I said that you'll do an assessment 1 minute after birth and then again 5 minutes after birth. However, if the baby scores less than a 7 at the 5 minute mark, their Apgar score would be repeated at 10 minutes after birth. Now a few key things to note about this APGAR score. The APGAR score does not diagnose or predict any long term problems. It just gives you a better idea of the nursing interventions and the nursing assessment that needs to happen. So that is the APGAR score, appearance, pulse, grimace, activity and respiratory. Now if you want more maternity, labor and delivery or pediatric videos in the future, write Love in the comments below to let me know. I want to make sure that I'm creating videos that you need and want. So if you want more videos on labor and delivery, peds and maternity nursing, write love in the comments below and make sure that you hit that like button. Share this video with all of your friends. And of course be sure to subscribe and hit that bell so you never miss any other awesome nursing school videos. Thank you so much for watching my friend. Now go become the nurse that God created only you to be and I will catch you right back here next time on the Nursing School Show. Take care of.
