Where do you put your stethoscope?

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Just finished my first semester (yeah!) and can't get my last clinical rotation out of my head. My instructor stated that we should keep our steths in our pocket and not around our neck. She claimed that it was unprofessional and only doctors and nurses on TV wear them around the neck. Eventhough I've seen plenty of professional staff with it around their necks, I've tried to comply, but twice ended up knocking the cap off of my markers and ended up ruining my uniforms which are white. Also with all the stuff we're expected to carry around in our pockets, it takes me forever to take out the steth without papers, 4x4s, etc. joining up. So, just wondering what everyone else does.

Specializes in Oncology; med/surg; geriatric; OB; CM.

Around my neck...have since I was 18 & a Nurses' Assistant (long before there were CNAs). I know where it is; I clean it between each patient and no doc has stolen it for years.

I have lent them to a doc & have had to chase them down the hall for it. What male doc wants a hot pink steth? Any of them!! LOL!!

Eventually this instructor will be out of your hair and your life. Remember many of them look for ways to make your life miserable (probably because their teachers were miserable to them). I never once had an instructor tell me I looked unprofessional with my steth around my neck...maybe when my stupid ugly waitress-type uniform top had too much stuff in the pockets (which I still have too much stuff but it's handy) but never with my stethoscope!

What will they think to "b*tch" about next?:nurse:

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No it is not unprofessional and yes it might be a hazard to your health/safety to wear it around your neck. I wear it around my neck all the time as that is the most convenient site.

However, you need to go by your clinical instructor if he she asks you to walk upside down in clinical. That is the smart thing to do while you are a student if you want to pass/get a good grade. It is areal mistake to tell your instructor they are wrong even if they are.

When you graduate, you can pin wear it as a hat if you like.

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Specializes in psych, general, emerg, mash.

all this fuss over a stethoscope..wears its most comfortable..NO NOT THERE!

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Specializes in Emergency Room, Hospice/Palliative Care.
How is it not unprofessional for Doctors to wear it around the neck but it is unprofessional for nurses. Makes no sense. I wear mine around my neck and I clean it after each use. I don't have enough room in my pockets for it and I don't think I would like the clip on the waist because the weight of the scope on one side and nothing to even it out on the other would drive me nuts. Plus it probably make my pants fall off :|

The waist clip can make your pants fall down. Happened!

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Specializes in Trauma ICU.

Ahh, to be back in nursing school again :eek: . I suppose the right answer is, "When in Nursing School, do as the Nursing Schoolans do." However, when you join the nursing work force put your stethescope around your neck like the rest of us.

One of my favorite nursing instructorisms back 15 years ago was calling a patient a client. Well, that term fell out of favor.

Enjoy nursing school and keep your glass half-full!

Chris, ICU RN

Afghanistan military hospital

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
The waist clip can make your pants fall down. Happened!

I knew it!!!! LOL

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Specializes in Emergency Room, Specialty Infusions.

:smackingf Nursing instructors....sheesh.

Do what they want while in school. Goal is to pass, right?

All the nurses I have known in the past 34 years usually wear it around their neck. Then we discovered the oils from our skin causes the tubing to get stiff and crack. Then they came up with the nice colorful covers for the tubing....so we can wear the scope around our neck. Never see 'em on TV wearing a cover on their stethoscope!

Oh...then you get old(er) and ya can't stand to have it around your neck because of the arthritis and neck strain ya've acquired over the years from lifting, pulling, pushing, and long hours and even THAT little bit of weight is too much! :grn:

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Neck during start of shift when I'm assessing, then usually at my computer station, where I can grab it if I need it. I probably wear it around my neck half of the shift. It isn't unprofessional. It makes you look like you are working! When I first started after graduating a year ago, some of us noobs noticed that some of the "seasoned" nurses didn't even appear to have stethoscopes! Kinda hard to assess breath sounds without one. :)

I don't like the clips. My unit is an old VERY CRAMPED med-surg floor and as a kinda big guy, I get hung up in cords, lines, chairs, IV poles, etc. every time I try to get to bed 2. I would get snagged on even more stuff if it was hanging from my scrubs.

And you know what else? We were told in school not to chew gum. Unprofessional. Well, lemme tell ya, when I am leaning in close to a patient at the end of a 12 hour shift, I am sure they appreciate my wintergreen gum a lot more than what my breath would really smell like. It's NO BIG DEAL.

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Do you clean it between every single room you go in or between patients you use it on. I think the germ argument is that around your neck you may lean over a patient doing something and the stethoscope can come in contact with them....or any fomite in the room as you do things, change bed, whatever. then you go to another patients room with that, not thinking to clean it since you didnt use it. In your pocket you wouldnt have that as it would only come in contact wth patient, or fomites if you take it out of your pocket to use it, and then you would clean it. If you are cleaning it before every room you go into, weather you have used it or not then it wouldnt spread more germs, but taking into condideration one likely wouldnt clean a stethoscope after leaving a room when you didnt use it, you are going to pick up more germs in a room that you are not using it in if you have it on your neck, then if you have it in your pocket.

I have not stopped laughing through this whole thread!

Just to be "devil's advocate" here... When you move from room to room, whatever airborne organisms are there, or whatever organisms flop into the air as you move about, are going to be on your hair, your arms, your uniform (top and bottom), your shoes, and your pen, your stethoscope, your papers, and your earrings. Unless, upon leaving that room, you hop in the shower, wash your hair and whole body, change scrubs and pens, etc., then you're going to carry those organisms into the next room with you.

Of course, you're going to wash your hands, and maybe change gloves (if whatever you're doing requires gloves), AND clean your stethoscope bell, but whatever hopped onto the rest of you will probably go with you to the next room, and the next and the next...

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Specializes in Med Surg, ER, OR.

I do agree that around the neck is the easiest and most often done. I do think it would be sweet to live near the Littmann factory for the annual cleaning and tube change! That would get expensive, though, since the tubing costs between 40-80 bucks. That is unprofessional!!!

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I think the reason for leaving the stethoscope in your pocket has to do with infection control.

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i think what they-the teachers- really mean is that students weren't supposed to wear stethoscope around their neck because that would be for professionals only..i think that's what they mean..and it would be unprofessional on their part to let their students do that..i guess.??.:yeah::nurse:

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