Physical Examination

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Hello Nurses,

I am curious. Do you palpate and percuss every patient that comes in? I am having difficulty with characteristics of percussion notes and their meanings. I am also having difficulty distinguishing the lung sounds, such as Crackles, Stridor etc. If you know any websites or techniques that can help me with adventitious sounds, I would appreciate it.

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Tele.

Personally, I don't percuss every pt, I was taught in school that this was more of an advanced assessment technique, that bedside nurses generally don't do.

I do, however, palpate during every assessment.

Below are some websites with audio lung/heart sounds, hth

http://www.meddean.luc.edu/lumen/meded/medicine/pulmonar/IMAGES/CD-LungSounds/mac/cugell-07july11.swf

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Littmann/stethoscope/education/heart-lung-sounds/

http://www.med.ucla.edu/wilkes/inex.htm

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during my review for nclex, i watched videos that discusses different kinds of heart and lung sounds, the one by ed4nurses is what helped me the most. check it out on you tube.

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I'm on a medical floor. I never ever percuss. I do palpate every abdomen in my assessment. I will palpate other areas as appropriate.

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