Do I need a pediatric stethoscope?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

This is probably a dumb question,

I'm going to be a GN in a non cardiac Trauma PICU in a few weeks and I have a classic adult littman stethoscope that I went through nursing school with and it seems to work fine. Should I invest now in a pediatric stethoscope, will I actually need one?

Thank you.

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Specializes in Cardiac, Home Health, Primary Care.

I am able to use my adult stethoscope on kids easily. Youngest I've seen recently was 9 months I think. So it's probably not 100% necessary.

The Littman Cardiology 3 and Master Cardio have ways to give you a peds head if you are interested in upgrading. Plus I can hear a little better with my cardio 3 than my classic 2.

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Specializes in ER, Pediatric Transplant, PICU.

Not really. Once they get to a certain age an adult one is fine. Just realize that if you have a baby (likely under about a year), you likely won't be able to tell the different between upper and lower lung sounds because it will be so large on their chest. But my ICU keeps those crappy disposable ones in every room and they do just fine because they are smaller (even if you can't hear fantastic out of them!). So maybe you could buy a cheaper peds stethoscope for that purpose.

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Specializes in Pedi.

9 years as a pediatric nurse. I've never owned a "pediatric" stethoscope.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
9 years as a pediatric nurse. I've never owned a "pediatric" stethoscope.

This.

From neonates to older adults, and good, basic stethoscope has served me well.

I'm going to upgrade to a Cardio 3, not to a pedi stethoscope; I used a coworkers and enjoyed it...even right now I'm using a classic SE that I've had for 10 years-my first stethoscope as a nurse-and have heard every murmur, rales, crackles, HR and RR rate, bruit without any issues.

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