Doctor stole my stethoscope

[ayejay09]

So, this week hasn't been fun. My lovely Litmann that I received as a Christmas gift has been stolen by a doctor. I've even gone so far as to post fliers around the unit. I know that many nurses have their stethoscope stolen. My thought is "If doctors are stealing our stethoscopes, why are the facilities not paying us for those EXPENSIVE things?" Take it out of their paychecks. Every stethoscope stolen results in money taken from their paychecks. Or make them pool money together to supply us stethoscopes.

Needless to say, I miss my stethoscope. Who else has these problems? How do you track your stethoscope down?

[hotwaterbottle]

Ruby Vee, it's very hard for me to understand how these doctors can just steal stethoscopes, especially from ppl who may make less money than they do. I was brought up to respect other people's personal property, and I still do. For example, if I borrow a book I read it as promptly as possible and return it so that it won't get lost in my home. Other people don't seem to be brought up this way. My husband and I lent a book and a movie DVD to friends and they claim they lost BOTH of them and never returned or replaced them and appear to be unfazed. I could go on about them and others (coworkers of both me and my husband stole stuff in the past) but there's no need. It makes me mad that that cardiologist's office was full of your former coworkers' stethoscopes. What are these doctors thinking? DO they think? I may seem old-fashioned, but this country needs to get back to some basic morals like you don't lie, cheat, steal or commit other crimes. I'm glad you got your scope back and embarrassed the resident as well (I probably would have been too chicken to say anything in front of others).

[needlesmcgeeRN, ASN, RN]

Why would that stop someone from walking off with a pen? When I worked at a convenience store back in the olden days, we used crappy pens without lids - no one wants those.

In convenience stores they sometimes tape plastic plastic picnic spoons or forks to the pens at the checkout counter to prevent people walking off with them.

Sigh. If only you'd taped a plastic spoon to the bell of your stethoscope, you wouldn't be crying to us now.

[JKL33]

This whole topic could've been written by a unit clerk regarding ink pens. Their own personal ink pens that write with a great flow of ink, some of them basic and some of them fancier, that they have personally purchased because they prefer them to the bulk office supply pens, and like to be able to use them while doing their work. A certain pen made the job easier and helped them do their best. Their pens were constantly disappearing or being spotted in someone else's hand - and in the case of ink pens it isn't the doctors who were guilty; in my observations it was a NURSE almost without fail. Some unit clerks bought unique pens in hopes of being able to keep better track of them, some attached items to the pens, most recently I noticed the clerk's pen had been labeled and laminated " _____'s PEN/DO NOT TOUCH". I myself was guilty a time or two, apologized, and then started being more careful to not have someone else's pen in my hand.

Perhaps we we could all realize that our own individual life story and budget means that some of our items might be way more precious to us than they are to someone in a different situation, or who works within a different budget. Nurses were never "stealing" unit clerks' pens because we thought we were better than them or because we all walk around 24-7 with a god complex thinking we can just take whatever we want even though we know it doesn't belong to us. We simply were in a hurry and needed an item to do our job, and picked up the nearest one.

OP, if you know, 100%, that a doctor stole your stethoscope, that means there is a most excellent chance that you know who took it. Approach that person personally if possible. If not, you have learned something about humanity/all of us. With your next scope just know that no "tricks" are necessary with this issue (i.e. the "ear infection" routine or neon colored items are not for me personally)...just be direct, honest, and pleasant: "I'm sorry but I don't loan my stethoscope, my last one was not returned to me. We do have spares in the nurse's station that are for anyone to use."

I loan my stethoscope only if the person doesn't need to leave my line of vision to use it. When I see that they're about done with it, I approach with a smile and my "expectant" look. I know some day it will be gone for one reason or another but in the meantime I've done my part for goodwill amongst coworkers/colleagues.

I do hope your stethoscope turns up!

[BeenThere2012, ASN, RN]

Mine is engraved too, but I never thought of glitter nail polish!! I love that idea.

I had a pair of bandage scissors that came up missing, had my name engraved on them, 2 years later we get a new DON and as she's going through her new desk she found them. Turns out they were engraved with my maiden name, and she interviewed me right before I got married and knew that name sounded familiar so asked everyone with my first name at the facility until she was able to give them back to me.

That was very nice of her.

[ssn2000]

:blink:Girl please, just go tell the doctor you need your stethoscope back. It seems the problem is half way solved since you've identified the culprit.

[Buyer beware, BSN]

I give mine a bath at least once a week. It sleeps in a crate at night and because I'm an excessively oily person never sling it around my neck. You MUST read the very informative and important nursing studies done on that very subject.

Additionally, if his stole your scope, in return, steal his Mercedes, Porche or Range Rover. Fair is fair.#@#!!!

[Haddoa]

Haha I always had mine around my neck and when a doc asked to borrow I would say nope you guys always steal them. Then I would grudgingly hand it over (sometimes) Never lost one!

[benharold1, BSN]

A doctor did the same thing to me years ago. He actually had the nerve to sit right across from me with my stethascope around his neck.

It was a unique stethoscope with an amplifier. When I confronted him he insisted that "someone gave him "the stethoscope, but I know there was no one

who had a stethoscope like it. After that I purchased a stethoscope that was heart-shaped. That stethoscope never went missing.

Sorry this happened to you!

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

This morning on the floor one of the senior RNs tried to lift it out of my pocket, and she got an earful! She had left her own at the desk, and we were in an iso room, so she didn't want to get out of her gear, go down the hall, then gear up again. Too.Bad. Mine is mine, and I don't share.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

I've had a deluxe Sprague stethescope for 40 years that occasionally walked when residents borrowed, but it's teal color so stood out always made it back to our respiratory telemetry unit,plus had having my name engraved on it helped.

Colleagues would borrow it too as you could hear heart and lung sounds clearly despite the noisy vents used in 80's and 90's better than Littman during that time.

Have replaced diaphragm and eartips several times over the years.

Only 16.95 at Hopkins Medical

[BeenThere2012, ASN, RN]

I've lost a couple of stethoscopes. Once, a resident plucked it right off my neck without asking, listened to breath sounds and then walked off the unit with it while I still had my hands full cleaning the patient. He was a senior resident on a consulting service, and I never saw him again. That was an expensive dark grey Littman Cardiology scope. I replaced it with a dark green one that I never wore around my neck. If I wasn't using it, it was in my pocket, in my bag at the nurse's station or sometimes hidden out of sight in a drawer.

My husband, who has lost several stethoscopes (misplaced, put down and forgotten or lent to residents on purpose) lent his to an attending cardiologist who walked off with it. "I don't want to bother him about it," he told me. "He'll bring it back. But can I borrow yours for the shift?" I NEVER lend my stethoscope, EVER. But this was my husband. So after extracting promises that he wouldn't wear it around his neck, lend it to anyone or leave it lying around, I lent it to him. When I came back to work at the end of his shift, he had lost it. Had no idea where it was. I was FURIOUS. I made him order me a new one from Littman and find me a scope to use for the shift. And I've never let anyone -- even my husband -- use my scope since. When someone asks to borrow it, I produce a cheap isolation scope for them to use, and if they insist that they'd rather borrow mine, I claim to have a recurrent ear infection that I just can't shake.

About a year after my husband lost my scope, a strange resident came on the unit with a familiar dark green Littman with red tape around the tubing. I was pretty sure it was mine from the tape, but seeing my name engraved on the bell when he put it on the patient's chest sort of clinched it. The resident insisted it was HIS, that his family had given it to him. I waited until his attending was present and then I asked to see his stethoscope. He was kind of boxed in there, and sure enough, "Ruby Vee" was engraved right there for all to see. He didn't have much choice but to give it back when his attending was watching. He complained about "what am I supposed to use?" And was nasty to me for the length of his residency, and one time muttered "Thanks for embarrassing me in front of my attending" to me. I told him I wouldn't have to have embarrassed him in front of his attending if he had just returned my stethoscope to me when it was clear it had my name on it.

Losing stethoscopes is a common thing. Having one walk away around someone else's neck is a common thing, and it's usually physicians who take them. Residents and even attending a will "borrow" sthethescopes and "forget" to return them. When I took a parent to a cardiologist's office years ago, every MA and CNA in the office was wearing a stethoscope engraved with the name of one of my CCU colleagues who had previously had a scope go missing.

Tell them to buy one just like we all have to do.

[RPH_RN]

Need your name on it, on a big ugly piece of tape.