..but google has failed to answer it, or either my googling skills are off today.
As nurses, will we be taught to use otoscopes to check for ear infections and such? Or is that out of the scope of practice? I was just curious because there is a chapter on it in my "Made Incredibly Visual: Health Assessment" book and I thought those books were made specifically for nurses/nursing students. (at least I thought that's what their website said.. But I could very well be wrong!)
We learned...sort of. We covered them briefly in health assessment and then again in 3rd semester med surg. I think it's part of our state mandated curriculum. We didn't spend much time on them. We mostly just played around with them looking in each other's ears. The instructors seemed to think that knowing how to recognize one and put it together was most important.
I work on a tele floor and have never had to use an otoscope. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but unless you specialize or work at a doctor's office you will never use one.
We learned how to use them for our health assessment course. We also used them when we were doing physical assessments at a local elementary school. It's crazy what a child will stick in their ears!
We didn't learn in nursing school but were told if you have a chance to use one to go for it! I actually own one and use it on my kids weekly. They think it's funny when I say stuff like "no wonder you don't listen to me, all that wax in your ears makes it hard to hear"
I recently did a school nurse rotation and I told her (the school nurse) that it was the first time I actually saw an RN use an otoscope. She used it for every kiddo (I was at an elementary school) who came in with an earache, then she used it to check tonsils for those with sore throats. It was an invaluable part of her assessment on the children.
I don't use it as an RN, and was never taught how in nursing school. However in a graduate level assessment class I learned how. I work inpatient and have seen them used in peds and the ER but normally it is the doctors using them
You can get inexpensive ones to use at home, especially useful for the kid who gets otitis media frequently, and for the ever-present foreign body risk. :)
BelleNscrubs04
240 Posts
We learned...sort of. We covered them briefly in health assessment and then again in 3rd semester med surg. I think it's part of our state mandated curriculum. We didn't spend much time on them. We mostly just played around with them looking in each other's ears. The instructors seemed to think that knowing how to recognize one and put it together was most important.