What color Littman Classic II SE stethoscope do you have?

Nurses Uniform/Gear

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Hi! I finished my pre-reqs and was accepted into my school's nursing program starting this fall! Yeah!:) My school requests us to have a Littman Classic II SE stethoscope. I've read on here and have been told that stethoscopes can be stolen quite frequently while in school and at clinical sites so I'm trying to find out what the most common colors are so that I can buy an uncommon color to try to prevent mine from "walking". I also plan to take the advice I've read on here and have mine engraved. medisave.net seems to have the best prices I've seen so far...any other advice from the professionals I'm so grateful to have access to??? Thank you so much everyone!:heartbeat:nurse:

Thank you!!

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Specializes in CVSICU, Cardiac Cath Lab.

Mine is brown, with copper-colored earpieces and diaphragm/bell. Engraved, of course :) And I contemplated "borrowing" one of those baby lo-jack tags for it, before I settled for gluing beads on it.

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Specializes in Nephrology.

I have a baby blue one that I have had for 23 years and it still works great. Can't get that colour anymore... The only thing I have had to replace was the earpieces. Definitely the best investment I made in nursing school. Not engraved, no name tag, just one very possessive owner who never takes her eyes off it.....

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WOW! A tip of the hat to you for having it that long, that must be a record from everything I've learned about them walking so far! It will be my goal to be able to say the same thing one day! Nice to know they can last a long time with some love and care! :redpinkhe

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Specializes in Nephrology.

One of the doctors I used to work with was notorious for walking away with other people's stethoscopes...... At one point he came to the unit with 27 of them to return. And he wonders why I never loaned him mine... :lol2:

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Specializes in ICU, ED, Trauma, Transplant.
One of the doctors I used to work with was notorious for walking away with other people's stethoscopes...... At one point he came to the unit with 27 of them to return. And he wonders why I never loaned him mine... :lol2:

Your story reminds me of one I heard:

A doctor who worked with my mom would borrow a stethoscope every time he'd round in the hospital, then leave, forgetting it was around his neck. He'd get into his car and just throw it in the back seat with the dozen other stethoscopes he had picked up. Every month or so, his wife would collect them and bring them all in with homemade cookies and say, "Sorry my husband's a nitwit.":lol2:

Anyway, I still have the Littmann that my parents bought for me when I started nursing school almost ten years ago. I think what's helped me keep it this long is having one of those ID tags you said you were going to get, and then attaching a small keychain watch onto that ID tag.

I HATE wearing watches (feels annoying, and I think watches are germ magnets), so I got a small, neat-looking keychain watch with sweeping second hand so I can do cardiac assessments conveniently. People have noticed it and given me compliments. I think it makes my stethoscope more conspicuous looking. When I've laid somewhere and then ask if anyone has seen it, someone usually knows where it is because they remember seeing the shiny little watch attached to it.

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I can't stand anything but black, and I use a Cardiology III. Keep them in your pants pocket. Don't leave them laying around.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
I'm impressed that you engraved it yourself...thinking I'm better off leaving that to the professionals as I would only become one of your patients if I attempted that myself with a Dremel! lol! I hope I can keep my stethoscope for a long long time...actually that brings another question, do they ever need to be replaced if you manage to hold on to it and take good care of it?

I must have worked on a good unit, because I would tend to leave mine lying on the desk at the nurses' station, and it didn't disappear....once in a while I would have a night that I couldn't find it before I left, but someone would either put it in my mailbox, or hang it with our floor stethescopes (I am guessing someone might have picked it up and used it, and that's why I couldn't find it, but it never disappeared permanently). In fact, there were a couple of spots I set it routinely, so I knew where to check to put it away when I left!

Mine is navy blue. Not engraved, but I have a beaded nametag on it. My first one "wore out" after 7 or 8 years, and that was the tubing....it started to crack along the area where it bent around and rested on the back of my neck (it got stiff).

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Specializes in Surgery, Tele, OB, Peds,ED-True Float RN.

Mines a Lilac color, so it's pretty recognizable. I'm a float nurse so I leave it all over the place and someone usually finds it and emails me to tell me that I left it there. Once, a nurse found it and used it for a few days, when someone who knew it was mine asked her about it she said that nobody had "claimed it" so she was taking it for herself. I got an email telling me where my stethoscope was that same day and I went a took it back.

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Specializes in PICU, ICU, Hospice, Mgmt, DON.

I had a light blue one I got for school and that is the only one I used for my entire career for clinical nursing (I now do case management)...It did not wear out per se...but the tubing got real stiff and I would have to replace it if I were going to use if professionally. I still have it...it's 22 years old now.

I would recommend a darker color, I did notice the blue discoloring in some spots...if I had to buy another, I would go with the navy:)

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

Mine is a burgandy/rasberry color and has my name engraved on it. It was a gift from my parents when I got into nursing school. It walked off for about 6 months. I have no idea where it went but it was no longer on my unit, and I don't float anywhere so someone must have picked it up walked off with it and used it. Then one day miraculously it appeared sitting on the staff lounge table. Since then I was given a fabric cover for it by one of my preceptees and it has not wandered off since!

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I got carted off to the hospital from a home health case one time. My belongings were placed in my car except for my burgundy Littman. As many times as I requested my property be returned to me, (I never went back to the case), everyone always said they had no idea where my scope went. Yeah, isn't it obvious that the nurse who took my job also took my scope?

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