stethoscope for bte hearing aids

Nurses Disabilities

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My son and I are starting nursing school together this fall. We have been looking for stethoscopes that he can successfully use with his bte hearing aides. The one that he is looking at is the E-Scope belt model by cardionics that he would use with earphones. It is a little pricey, but well worth the cost if it works. Looking for opinions from nurses that are hard of hearing and have to utilize a stethoscope that is more powerful than a traditional one. If you have used one of these was it worth the cost and a good stethoscope? He does not want to have to take his hearing aides in and out all day and he cant hear through the molds. Thank you in advance for all help.

Hi There -

I completely understand his dilemna. I am a practicing bedside nurse with bilateral in the canal hearing aids and a moderate hearing loss. I have a littman electronic stethoscope. However, depending on the range of his hearing loss, he might be able to use a regular stethoscope for listening to bowel and lung sounds as these are "low" tones.

When I am assessing a patient or performing a blood pressure, I take out one hearing aid, place it in my pocket and use one side of my stehoscope while the other dangles in front of my ear. This allows for accurate assesment. I have checked my numbers and findings with other nurses. I realize this is different than what your son is interested in doing, but it has worked very well for me in a fast paced, academic medical setting. Once you get in a rythym with your assesments, this type of manuever is easy to do!

That is quite the stethoscope you are looking at, and I imagine that it is quite large. I would be concerned about its portability in a clinical setting. Also, if you go with that option, get it engraved!! Stethoscopes, especially expensive ones, have a tendency to walk off in MD's hands.

I wish your son all the best!

Thank you for the information. He will definately take his stethoscope into be engraved. Interesting thing about the e scop head phones they blue toothed to his hearing aides. There is a stethoscope that we have found they are working on now that will purely bluetooth to his hearing aides but it is not in production yet.

I am a Respiratory Therapist with hearing loss. I had the ITE hearing aids for almost 8 years. I bought the Cardionics E-Scope soon after I got my hearing aids and used it with headphones. The E-Scope was a wonderful solution to my problem. The Cardionics Company has fantastic customer service. I can't say enough good things about them. They really stand behind their products. The E-Scope is a little pricey, but definitely worth the money. It has been a life-saver for me. And it has lasted for 8 years and counting. This past week, I have gotten new hearing aids. They are the BTE kind. This week I was able to use the headphone over the BTE's. It was a little awkward, but I could hear. I am checking out the new adapters for BTE. But, if you are using ITE aids, I highly recommend the Cardionics E-Scope.

As an audiologist at a large hospital I have plenty of nurses as patients who have hearing loss. The e-scope is great. The best way I've had the e-scope be used for BTE patients is I order boots for their BTE's that are direct audio input (DAI) and then I order the appropriate Y adapter from the company. Many of my patients can wear their hearing aids and run the Y adaptor up their shirt or scrub top and wear the e scope on their hip and pt's never know they have hearing aids.

I've also had success using an Oticon Streamer that is neck worn with a DAI cable running from the headphone jack of the e-scope up to the neck worn streamer. It's nice because my patient with this can use his blue tooth cell phone and still stay connected to his e-scope if need be.

Have you all tried finding a competent hospital audiologist? We are more than helpful with such things. :)

;)

He went ahead and got the E Scope with headphones with great success. As a nursing student with greater than 50% hearing loss he would recommend it to others in the medical field. He has had no trouble hearing with it. I definately want him to talk to his audiologist about the oticon streamer. He did not mention that to us before.

Thanks for the input on using the e-scope with the BTE. I have read about the boot. Does that stay on the hearing aid, or just at work? How does it fit on? I have FM built into my hearing aids, and we are going to try connecting my scope with I-Com. I see my audiologist again next week. Thank you for the helpful info. Just remember everbody, there is a lot of technology out there to help those of us with hearing problems. It doesn't replace your ears, but with the right person helping you, it can be the next best thing. I love my hearing aids!

Brenda, Yes the boots hook onto the bottom of the BTE's and you can remove them when not using them. You may check your BTE may have the capabilities of having a direct audio input put into the bottom of them. If they already have FM built in then you could see if they have an FM transmitter you could purchase that has an audio input jack.

I know you must be wearing Phonak hearing aids since you said you are going to try the icom. You could use the iCom's audio input jack and hook your e scope to that using a simple DAI cable (these are like $4 from radioshack) and then your iCom would stream the e-scope sounds directly to your hearing aids wirelessly. Might make for an easier and less noticeable set up if you care about that sort of thing.

Glad you like your hearing aids.

Audiologists are a lot like any other doctors; some are amazing and some are just plain awful. Usually you can tell the good ones by how much they work with you on hearing aid problems and how they always throw out ways you could be hearing better.

If anyone else has any questions about hearing aids and stethoscopes please message me and I'd be happy to help.

Brenda, Yes the boots hook onto the bottom of the BTE's and you can remove them when not using them. You may check your BTE may have the capabilities of having a direct audio input put into the bottom of them. If they already have FM built in then you could see if they have an FM transmitter you could purchase that has an audio input jack.

I know you must be wearing Phonak hearing aids since you said you are going to try the icom. You could use the iCom's audio input jack and hook your e scope to that using a simple DAI cable (these are like $4 from radioshack) and then your iCom would stream the e-scope sounds directly to your hearing aids wirelessly. Might make for an easier and less noticeable set up if you care about that sort of thing.

Glad you like your hearing aids.

Audiologists are a lot like any other doctors; some are amazing and some are just plain awful. Usually you can tell the good ones by how much they work with you on hearing aid problems and how they always throw out ways you could be hearing better.

If anyone else has any questions about hearing aids and stethoscopes please message me and I'd be happy to help.

To AuDDoc,

I have profound hearing loss in my right ear and severe hearing loss in my left ear. I am using Oticon Agil for my right ear. I really want to be a CNA and perhaps go up to be a Nurse. Obviously I would need to get a special stethoscope that would work really well for my BTE hearing aid. What are the best products out there and what can I do. Is there a way to test any of the stethoscope to see which one would work the best? I live in Colorado.

Thanks

To AuDDoc,

I have profound hearing loss in my right ear and severe hearing loss in my left ear. I am using Oticon Agil for my right ear. I really want to be a CNA and perhaps go up to be a Nurse. Obviously I would need to get a special stethoscope that would work really well for my BTE hearing aid. What are the best products out there and what can I do. Is there a way to test any of the stethoscope to see which one would work the best? I live in Colorado.

Thanks

I want to first ask if you have a severe amount of hearing loss in your left ear why aren't you wearing two hearing aids? Is your clarity of speech that bad in the left ear? Your brain is set up to hear with two ears so you should be wearing two for the best benefit.

The agil is an amazing hearing aid. You have a couple of options for coupling a scope to your hearing aid. Simplest and cheapest way would be get your audiologist to order you a pair of direct audio input boots for your hearing aid. They are like $45 a piece and just snap on the bottom of you aid. Then you just use a Y cable included with most amplified stethoscopes to connect it to your hearing aid.

The other option which would be a cleaner signal and less wires would be to buy a streamer for your oticon hearing aid and then use a direct audio input cable to attach your stethoscope to your streamer and it will wirelessly stream it to your hearing aid. This in my opinion would be the best option becaus you can pair the streamer with your cell home ad blue tooth devices such as a land line telephone or computer.

The escope by far is the best amplified stethoscope out there! Its pricey around $300-400 but well worth it! You can order it from harc mercantile online yourself and skip the audiology middle man and they have a good return policy. Just make sure you get the right connected (y dai cable for boots or dai straight cable for streamer). The streamer you can get from your audiologist and it costs us $150 to buy from oticon so they shouldn't charge you over $200 for it or else they are ripping you off.

If you are going to nursing school you have a couple of options to get this paid for! One option is buy it and claim it as an educational expense on your taxes, or contact your state board of vocational rehabilitation office and speak with them and usually they will cover the cost of your hearing aids and any other assisting devices needed for your education. Sometimes they will even give scholarships for hearing impaired students.

If you have any other questions just ask away. Hope this helped!

My left ear is very severe. Since I was so little, I've never been fitted for an aid in that ear. My right ear has some function and so I'm able to wear a hearing aid. I've always wondered what it would be like to have both ears.

I purchased the streamer with my hearing aid. I've never heard music lyrics so clear before and some sounds just from my hearing aid. It sure is an incredible hearing aid. However, the antenna loop that connects to the streamer makes a lot of static noise and is very uncomfortable and frustrating. I've already had my audiologist replace both antennas and the problem still happens. I've stopped using it. And another problem is that I'm only using one hearing aid and not both so the antenna does work as well, I would think.

I'll definitely look into contacting my state board of vocational rehabilitation office here in Denver. I could use any help I could get. Do you have any other advice?

Thank you so much!

Thanks to AuDDOc for all your help and suggestions. I picked up my I-Com to use with my Phonak BTE hearing aids. It works great! Like you said, there is a cord that goes from the I-Com to the headphone port on the Cardionics e-scope. I am so happy with this. My patients are interested in the techology I use, and are always supportive. I hope that everyone who wrote in finds a stehoscope and the right combination of equipment to make this happen for them. Just don't let hearing problems stand in the way of your dreams.

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