Help please! Will this stethescope work?

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Hi,

I am starting an RN program in August, Yeah!!. My very kind neighbor who retired from nursing about 30 years ago gave me her stethescope.

I has a bell seperate from the diaphram and a little switch you move back and forth to active one or the other. I did not see anything like it when I was looking a new stethescopes online.

I don't want to show up for my first day and clinical and get laughed out due to antique equipment!. It sound ok to my completely untrained ear but should I just invest in a new one? How nice a new one?

Also, I am just finishing an online pharmacology course which I loved and I can't wait to start school next month. Any advise about school or encouragement would be much appreciated.

Thanks, from worried about looking like a nerd!!

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Specializes in Surgical Intensive Care.
Hi,

I am starting an RN program in August, Yeah!!. My very kind neighbor who retired from nursing about 30 years ago gave me her stethescope.

I has a bell seperate from the diaphram and a little switch you move back and forth to active one or the other. I did not see anything like it when I was looking a new stethescopes online.

I don't want to show up for my first day and clinical and get laughed out due to antique equipment!. It sound ok to my completely untrained ear but should I just invest in a new one? How nice a new one?

Also, I am just finishing an online pharmacology course which I loved and I can't wait to start school next month. Any advise about school or encouragement would be much appreciated.

Thanks, from worried about looking like a nerd!!

As long as you have listened to heart and lung sounds with the bell and diaphragm and can hear fairly clearly, you will be fine. I just finished up my first rotation and I bought a $7 stethoscope online! Worked like a dream! Best wishes.

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Specializes in ER/Trauma.
Hi,

I am starting an RN program in August, Yeah!!. My very kind neighbor who retired from nursing about 30 years ago gave me her stethescope.

I has a bell seperate from the diaphram and a little switch you move back and forth to active one or the other. I did not see anything like it when I was looking a new stethescopes online.

I don't want to show up for my first day and clinical and get laughed out due to antique equipment!. It sound ok to my completely untrained ear but should I just invest in a new one? How nice a new one?

Also, I am just finishing an online pharmacology course which I loved and I can't wait to start school next month. Any advise about school or encouragement would be much appreciated.

Thanks, from worried about looking like a nerd!!

Dear nerd :)

If it works, it's fine.

Most of my friends use fancy wrist-watches. I use my grandfather's windup pocket watch. I still use a straight-blade razor to shave (still use a stone and a strop to sharpen and shine it). I prefer driving manual instead of automatic. My suits are double brested with two buttons instead of the now fashionable three-buttons.

etc. etc.

So, don't worry about being a "nerd" - so long as the equipment works, you're good to go.

Good luck

Roy "Super Nerd" Fokker :D

PS: I'm only 21 years old. :p

PPS: My nursing school insists that the stethoscope nurses use must have both the Bell AND the Diaphragm :)

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