Stethoscope

I would call and check with your unit before purchasing your own stethoscope. For infection control purposes, each baby has their own stethoscope that stay with them at the bedside for their whole hospital stay in my unit. I think most other places are like this.

I was surprised to find that mine actually doesn't (well, effectively -- apparently the NM ordered 40+ Littmann infant steths about six months before I started, and surprise surprise, most of them grew legs and walked away). At any rate, most of the nurses in my unit use their own, and are simply diligent about wiping with alcohol between patients. At the moment, I'm using the Littmann cardiology III that my aunt gave me for graduation, but I'm waiting on a Littmann infant that I ordered. The cardiology III is great, acoustics-wise, but the chestpiece often looks like it's bigger than some of the babies I take care of!

Most units have a policy about each baby having their own stethoscope at their bedside that then gets thoroughly cleaned before new patients. Definitely check with your specific unit before your nana buys you anything.

Good luck!

Our unit's policy is a stethoscope at each infant's bedside for infection control. The only nurses with their own are our Tranport RNs and they borrow one from the unit and clean it all the time.

Check with the unit first but if you have more than one infant/shift (and chances are you will) it would be a pain to clean it after each use. Hopefully your unit has enough for every infant. AND, I wouldn't want to bring it home, either. Keep the bugs in the unit, don't bring them home.