This may be a silly question..

Nursing Students General Students

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..but google has failed to answer it, or either my googling skills are off today.

As nurses, will we be taught to use otoscopes to check for ear infections and such? Or is that out of the scope of practice? I was just curious because there is a chapter on it in my "Made Incredibly Visual: Health Assessment" book and I thought those books were made specifically for nurses/nursing students. (at least I thought that's what their website said.. But I could very well be wrong!)

Thanks!

We learned...sort of. We covered them briefly in health assessment and then again in 3rd semester med surg. I think it's part of our state mandated curriculum. We didn't spend much time on them. We mostly just played around with them looking in each other's ears. The instructors seemed to think that knowing how to recognize one and put it together was most important.

we were told to know what they are but not to worry about them because it was an advanced assessment

Specializes in L&D/NICU/Pediatrics.

The only thing I use an otoscope for is to check on the status of the ear wax ball that I'm trying to flush out.

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
we were told to know what they are but not to worry about them because it was an advanced assessment

Advanced assessment? An otoscope? Wow.......talk about "dumbing down" the RN.

You really don't use it much at the bedside.....but there are areas, like the ED, that it is used by nurses more often.

Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

I am a PN and we learned how to use them in school.I have used one in the hospital where I work.

Glad to have found this thread.

Do any of you seasoned nurses have anything to add about whether or not you use an otoscope in your practice?

Specializes in N/A.

I work on a tele floor and have never had to use an otoscope. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but unless you specialize or work at a doctor's office you will never use one.

We learned how to use them for our health assessment course. We also used them when we were doing physical assessments at a local elementary school. It's crazy what a child will stick in their ears!

We didn't learn in nursing school but were told if you have a chance to use one to go for it! I actually own one and use it on my kids weekly. They think it's funny when I say stuff like "no wonder you don't listen to me, all that wax in your ears makes it hard to hear"

I recently did a school nurse rotation and I told her (the school nurse) that it was the first time I actually saw an RN use an otoscope. She used it for every kiddo (I was at an elementary school) who came in with an earache, then she used it to check tonsils for those with sore throats. It was an invaluable part of her assessment on the children.

Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

I don't use it as an RN, and was never taught how in nursing school. However in a graduate level assessment class I learned how. I work inpatient and have seen them used in peds and the ER but normally it is the doctors using them

You can get inexpensive ones to use at home, especially useful for the kid who gets otitis media frequently, and for the ever-present foreign body risk. :)

::sing along with the immortal Pete Seeger:: "My mama said not to put beans in my ears, beans in my ears, beans in my ears ..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjx3wG7Kg58

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