I carried my stethoscope when I first started my job on the floor. I was being the "good new nurse" and did head-toe assx, check for PERRLA on a regardless of patient's neurostatus, checked for 4 points pulses, auscultated for breath sounds, APETM, etc etc, then I stopped using stethoscope completely for quite long time.
Especially at the ER, I feel that stethoscope was almost of no use. When I was on ER transition, I listened to breath sounds but soon recognized that it was almost waste of time mainly because almost everyone gets chest xray. But I started carrying stethoscope again recently and this is why. I feel that when I actually listen to the patients' lungs and breath sounds, it seems that patients trust me more, they like it more than me just coming in, hooking them up to monitor and asking mundane questions. That is actually the biggest reason I use my stethoscope now. In terms of outcomes, of course it serves no use because doc will order xray and know if there's effusion, atelectasis, or pneumo, but one, I like to be able to depend on skills instead of imaging tools to know what's going on, and two, patients react positively to that. I see that this is why docs put stethoscopes on patients "just as act" even though I know for sure he/she's not listening, but somehow that probably assures the patient.
Anyways, that's been my experience with stethoscopes. Do you carry yours and use them, do you think it actually matters? I don't but I use them for above reasons. What do you do?
