Why are you listening to the heart?

[grizun]

At a previous job in an extremely busy ED I was often criticized for "over assessing" my patients. Not being focused enough. My manager even told me once I should never listen to heart sounds. He posed the question,"What could you possibly hear that would change what you do?" I have a few answers to this question, but I'd rather hear more experi need nurses answers.

[Guest374845]

Maybe it's habits from before working the ED, but I listen to every heart, lung and gut in all my rooms. It takes longer to argue for or against it than it does to just do it. Heart tones aren't part of a focused exam, they're part of a brief but complete exam. The chief complaint or incidental findings will then get a focused assessment.

And I can EASILY hear grade 2-3 murmurs in my busy ED, so that's just dumb.

[grizun]

In the ED I work at now is a nurse, with whom I also worked at in the ED where I was told to stop listening to heart sounds. This nurse doesn't even own a stethoscope. I am not exaggerating. I'm not sure how one assesses the effectiveness of breathing treatments, etc, without one, but I've worked other EDs where I never saw nurses with this vital piece of equipment.

[canche]

In my ED even some of the doctors (including our medical director) don't always listen to heart sounds. We just so focused assessments, what's the point of listening to the heart sounds of a shoulder dislocation or a lower extremity cellulitis, for example?

[russianbear]

In my ED even some of the doctors (including our medical director) don't always listen to heart sounds. We just so focused assessments, what's the point of listening to the heart sounds of a shoulder dislocation or a lower extremity cellulitis, for example?

I agree. But I was told to never listen to heart sounds.