hard of hearing

I second Jules. Get the hearing aids. Communication is key in nursing. You need to be able to hear what people are saying, hear alarms, announcements etc. I worked with someone who wouldn't wear her hearing aids. It was very frustrating to repeat things 3 or 4 times before she heard me.

Get the hearing aid. If you want to go into a field where your hearing is important, then get the help you need. You will pay that much for a stethoscope you can hear with anyway. If this is your dream or passion then do it.

If you have trouble hearing patients speak, you need a hearing aid. If you only have trouble hearing through stethoscopes, look into electronic ones. If I haven't had my ears cleaned recently I have trouble doing manual blood pressures too. It is worth seeing an ENT doctor to figure out what is going on with your hearing so you can figure out how to proceed. I had my hearing checked when I failed a BP skill check off in nursing school and found my hearing was perfect as long as my ears had just been cleaned. Without a recent cleaning, I heard the diastolic stop 4 points higher than my instructor did, and she wanted me to hear it within 2 of her. I use a littman cardiology III and was considering a thinklabs digital stethoscope that both my instructor and I could listen through for skill checkoffs but thankfully was able to pass without that. I was disappointed to find the thinklabs ds2a model discontinued as the company moved on to higher end models, but I see people sell them on ebay and am still tempted to get one at some point.

I have an electronic scope and love it. I used to have a hearing aid but lost it during a code. I now realize my hearing has worsened so I really need to replace it. It's important to truly hear our patients and colleagues. The price of a hearing aid or scope is nothing if we miss something crucial.

Thanks for all the comments. I did have ears checked and they were clean so that isn't the problem. I hear OK unless there is background noise. The only time it has affected patient care was actually funny. I heard a patient wrong when she told me her name. At the end of two weeks she was leaving and the rehab person asked her name she told him what it was but stated that we had been calling her "" the whole time she was there and she kind of liked it! LOL Why on earth she hadn't told anyone before that I'll never know. I take my job very seriously and I would never want to jeopardize a patient. I was told in hearing test I had some hearing loss and would eventually need a hearing aid. I feel I can handle it for now with the exception of the pressure readings. I think I will buy one of the amplified ones mentioned here and see if I can go that route for now. The price of hearing aids is crazy!