Stethoscope does not seem loud enough

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Hello All,

I recently ordered my stethoscope, a Littman Cardiology III. I ordered this based off of reviews and such for nursing school. I do not have much experience with steths, but I've practiced a bit during A and P II. When I got it I started trying to listen to find my family member's pulses through it. I honestly feel like I cannot hear much out of it.

I'm trying to figure out if I need practice or if there is something wrong with my hearing! What was your experience when first trying to listen through a stethoscope??

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Specializes in MICU for 4 years, now PICU for 3 years!.

do you have the ear pieces in correct?? they angle forward, which I know seems kind of backwards, but thats the way they go. that would be my first guess...

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

Uh, by pulses you mean apical?

Usually aren't going to pick up peripheral pulses with a stethoscope. Not unless you strap a bp cuff on and pump it up.

This image is a good guide as to where to place your steth. heartsounds.gif

Also some people's heart sounds aren't as loud as others. Particularly the "larger" individuals. To get a better sound you want the person you are listening to to be in the left lateral position. This brings the heart to the front of the chest cavity.

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Yeah... I have this problem with any stethoscope I use. The issue is that my ear canals are at a very sharp angle in the direction of my eyes (does that make sense?) In any case, I have to bend the center part of the stethoscope so that the ear-pieces point more inward than they do right out of the box. Fortunately, the metal is somewhat maleable and if I work with it for a while, I get them to fit in my ears better. (Since I have to mangle it a bit, I can't exactly borrow someone else's stethoscope. Nor can they easily use mine.)

Just play with it for a while and see if you can get a little more customized fit.

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Check the ends of the metal where the rubber slides up over it. I had the same problem after I pulled the rubber down i found the metal full of rubber I cleaned them and now I can hear

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Thanks for all of the tips everyone! I do have the earpieces facing the right direction, but I am now wondering if perhaps the angle is a little off or the plastic pieces just aren't sealing correctly.

I am going to play around with all of your suggestions to make sure I have the best fit before I worry about going to the ear doctor! lol

Thanks!

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in order to hear anything I actually have to put the steth in my ears backward! I have a strange shape to my ear canals (and they are very shallow - I can't use ear buds with my iPod - they fall right out of my ears)...just for sh!ts and giggles turn it around...sounds screwy but it works for me!

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Specializes in SICU, TICU, CVICU.

I had the same problem today.. I have never used a steth but I tried a bunch on at the store today and everything was very faint... the sales girl said " dont take this the wrong way, but are you hard of hearing?" uh... ya... I could hear a heart but it sounded very far away... and All of the steth's sounded the same...

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Specializes in ER.

Just wanted to post a possible cause for this. My family bought me a "fancy" stethoscope for Christmas one year - it was a Littman Master Classic. I excitedly took it to work and started using it in my assessments. I thought it was the worst stethoscope I had ever used. Couldn't hear bowel sounds on any of my patients. I started reading about it on the Littman website and discovered that it had variable acoustics! :lol2: In order to hear certain sounds, you had to press quite hard and for other pitches, press very very lightly. So, just wanted to put this out there - yours may be the same. I felt really stupid after I read that I had been using it wrong. :)

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