New Grad in PICU, Stethoscope & Reference Book Question

[loveandnyc]

I am preparing for my PICU training program and I am shopping around for a peds stethoscope and a good PICU reference book. Any suggestions...

Also, I found manly websites selling the peds steth but I am worried about online shopping since some of the sites don't look too safe... I did find that Amazon sells them but there are so many item numbers. I wonder if each number is different because of the color but are they all the same?

Here is the link!

[KailuaNurse]

I have worked in PICU for 5 years. It is a great career. You will see lots of interesting diagnoses and get to work with great people. It can also be very stressful at times.

As far as a stethoscope, the PICU that I work at currently uses an assigned stethoscope for each child- so we don't use our own. However, I would recommend getting a Littman cardiology II (This is what I have- I don't know if they still have the II or if it is now a III). Anyway, the nice thing is that you pretty much have two sizes of diaphragms to work with. This is so nice in Peds since you take care of babies all the way to teenagers. A huge diaphragm will not work with kids or babies - all the sounds will mix together. And with a teenager a pediatric sized stethoscope will be too small.

As far as reference book. I would recommend the AACN's Core Curriculum for Pediatric Criticial Care. A new edition came out and it is quite good. All the the information is in outline form, allowing the reader to find the key points quickly.

Good Luck!