Can't hear! Stethoscope recommendations?

[future_nurse11]

Okay.. I'm over exaggerating. I can hear with the stethoscope that my school provided to me BUT everything sounds very faint.. Especially bowel & lung sounds. I was told that a cardiology stethoscope would give more amplification. I don't really want to pay a couple hundred for a stethoscope but at the same time I do want something that provides stronger, clearer sounds. Any recommendations? Something with quality that costs a reasonable amount?

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

After hearing so much hype about Littmann products, I am so glad another person has stepped forward to vouch for the utility of a Sprague Rappoport stethoscope. The $25 one spends on this stethoscope will be a good investment for years to come.

I've used those in the past as well. They can be quite good, and since they're in the $25-$80 range, they're likely to be of sufficient quality and clarity to do the job through school and into your professional career. The only thing you have to be sure of when you're using one of these stethoscopes is to simply be careful that you don't rub the tubing together. That creates a lot of noise that can mask what you're listening for. The tubing used is pretty thick so they won't pick up much outside noise at all unless the tubing rubs up against something (like the other tube).

Keeping noise out of the tubing lumen is quite a challenge and the very cheap stethoscopes have tubing that is fairly poor at doing that. That's one area that 3M/Littmann has gotten pretty good at doing with their single-tube stethoscopes - they're far better at keeping noise out than the cheap stuff is.