Can I do it?

Find some friends or family members to let you practice on them. Any skill takes practice and repetition to get it right. Once you get comfortable and confident in your skills, you shouldn't have any problems. Good luck.

To find a pulse you first should find the corresponding bone and press lightly to pinch the artery between the bone and your fingers. You may be pressing too hard and occluding the artery, hence no palpable pulse.

There are numerous small fields to auscultate lung sounds, but the loudest is usually 2 finger widths from the sternum and about 5 finger widths from the clavicle. Ask whomever you are listening to to take a deep breath and exhale slowly so that you are more likely to hear the exaggerated respiration. Once you hear these, it will be easier to hear normal ones.

For bowel sounds, you may simply not be listening long enough. Normoactive sounds are 5-30/min, so you may have to listen for a little while in the same quadrant before you hear anything. And be sure that you are listening before you are palpating the abdomen because palpation disrupts peristaltic movement and may alter your bowel sounds.

Buy an amplified or electronic stethoscope-- try Littman or Cardionics-- they're some of the best! You will be amazed at all you've missed out on.

I'm in my first semester of nursing school. I'm doing ok with the theory stuff, so I'm smart enough....but I can't find a pulse, or a lung sound or a bowel sound to save my life. I do ok on maniquin, and can draw a little picture of where those sounds should be heard....but on real life, less than anatomically perfect people forget it. I'd guess part of the problem is that I'm a little self consious about other people's privacy and space....and I'm not the most eye/hand coordinated person....so how about it can I do nursing? Ultimately I probably would want to do like psych or substance abuse, but even there I should be able to do a basic assesment! Is there hope?

Have you had your ears checked?

I'm in my first semester of nursing school. I'm doing ok with the theory stuff, so I'm smart enough....but I can't find a pulse, or a lung sound or a bowel sound to save my life. I do ok on maniquin, and can draw a little picture of where those sounds should be heard....but on real life, less than anatomically perfect people forget it. I'd guess part of the problem is that I'm a little self consious about other people's privacy and space....and I'm not the most eye/hand coordinated person....so how about it can I do nursing? Ultimately I probably would want to do like psych or substance abuse, but even there I should be able to do a basic assesment! Is there hope?

What kind of stethescope do you have?

The reason I ask is because one of the students in my class had the same problem in school regarding not being able to hear BS or the lungs. She asked to use my stetescope and could hear fine and when I tried to use hers I couldn't hear anything either. She had bought one of the cheaper uniform models that had a double bell. Well the bell she was trying to listen with didn't have the tubing turned that way. If you have a double bell unscrew the piece that you place on the pt and look inside. If you see silver then it's turned the wrong way. Just turn it until you hear a click and if you see black/hole then you have the tubing right.

A MD that I used to work with had a problem with hearing certain things and what he would do is remove the bell of the stethescope and cut about 5-6" off the tubing and was able to hear much clearer do to the sounds not having to travel as far.

Like the pp said practice on anyone you can until you get it right. If there's no one around or willing to help you there's no reason why you can't practice on yourself.

Just don't worry about it. It takes time to learn these skills and your still pretty new to nursing school.

Practice, practice, practice. And get the best scope you can afford. Littman is a popular name, but NOT all Littmans are created equal, and not all work for all ears. I had a horrible time hearing anything with the very popular Lightweight SE; I got the Master Cardio and now can hear EVERYTHING. Point is, try out a few, and see what works for YOU.

And did I mention practice?

Thanks everyone for your help. When I gave blood a few weeks ago the person had a "maxi-scope" which she said worked better than her expensive scope. I did get the ears check with the physical before school started...they are ok, not great but ok...so I guess I'll just keep practicing. Thanks

Thanks everyone for your help. When I gave blood a few weeks ago the person had a "maxi-scope" which she said worked better than her expensive scope. I did get the ears check with the physical before school started...they are ok, not great but ok...so I guess I'll just keep practicing. Thanks

According to my hearing tests, I hear fine, too :) However, you might be more 'in tune' with one scope over another. And don't let anyone tell you the absolute BEST scope (just see the large number of threads on THAT topic!). The "best" scope is the one that YOU can hear best from, and like the feel around your neck.

Good luck!