A typical doctor's appointment starts off with a blood pressure check.  It's routine and critical in identifying silent killers such as hypertension or high blood pressure.

"A major risk factor for heart disease and stroke, and those are the things that kill us so it's not fun and games. This is real preventative medicine," Dr. David Sakamoto said.

Clinical studies across the United States found a surprising number of health care professionals were taking blood pressure incorrectly.

The state Department of Health decided to act and work on refreshing skills in the field.

"A number of people haven't had training since they gone through the school, so we've found that there was a gap in the state for the retraining program," Linda Green, Department of Health said.

Doctors and nurses became students on Tuesday, listening to examples of blood pumping through arteries. They learned about factors that could lead to incorrect readings, wrong-sized arm cuffs, incorrect placement of the stethoscope and failing to pump the cuff sufficiently.

"On a daily basis it gets routine, and you tend to do things, over and over again.  this class helps you see things that you might have missed or can do differently for the next time," Medical Assistant Gretchen Leano said.

The American Heart Association recommends retraining health care professionals every six months to a year. DOH would like to establish training sessions within the health care community statewide.