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Stethoscopes

lxskllr

lxskllr

No Lifer
My daughter's in high school, and it's a trade oriented school. She's in the allied health track, and needs a stethoscope for next year. The price range on Amazon is huge, and I have no idea of what I'm looking at. Of course I want it as cheap as possible, but junk is worthless. Anyone here in health know what to buy, taking the situation into account?
 
If she is going to take care of it, not let it get stolen, and use it for more than a couple months: Littman Cardiology is the go to stethoscope afaik.
 
Maleficus said:
If she is going to take care of it, not let it get stolen, and use it for more than a couple months: Littman Cardiology is the go to stethoscope afaik.
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She'd probably take care of it, but maybe not too. Hard to say at this age, and with the group she's going to school with.
Jejunum said:
Cheapest stethoscope available is all she needs at this point. Trust me I'm a doctor
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Even bottom end? They have some for less than $10. That seems a little too cheap.

The Littman Lightweight II is $47, and a quick look at the reviews seems like it's acceptable for light professional use. Too expensive?

If it matters, at this point she's looking to get into psychology. If she continues, she'll likely have plenty of use for a learning stethoscope, but audio monitoring isn't directly related to her career path AFAIK.
 
As a respiratory therapist, Jejunum is right. Just starting out, they get lost, banged around. No need for an expensive scope.

At the hospital, they have the cheapest thing for contact precaution rooms. They cost about $4.00 each.

I tell all the students, that is what to get. You are not listening for heart defects, just wheezes, and blood pressures. Save your money for things like scrubs, and lunch.
 
<---- doctor(havent used a stethoscope in years 🙂 )

Get the cheapest Littman, theyre built the best. You wont need to be listening for very specific things, just get something thats built well and not going to kill you when it gets lost.

edit: used is fine, just change out the earbuds
 
Amazon has the best price on a descent selection of the better scopes.

Or you could go to your nearest hospital and just steal one.
Those things grow legs... and the more expensive the quicker they go wandering.
 
Thanks a lot guys. I'll look at used channels first since that's my preference anyway. If that comes up dry, I'll go for a sub $10 set, and promise her an immediate upgrade if they turn out unacceptable. That's a cheap gamble, with the potential of saving ~$35.
 
james1701 said:
As a respiratory therapist, Jejunum is right. Just starting out, they get lost, banged around. No need for an expensive scope.

At the hospital, they have the cheapest thing for contact precaution rooms. They cost about $4.00 each.

I tell all the students, that is what to get. You are not listening for heart defects, just wheezes, and blood pressures. Save your money for things like scrubs, and lunch.
Click to expand...

An RT? I in my former life rolled as a RT...great job! I had a decent lithium stethoscope...and imo you can tell the difference...

If her trade is going to require some sort of precision on heart, lung or belly sounds get a semi decent one (under 100 bones)...it does make a difference.
 
Maleficus said:
If she is going to take care of it, not let it get stolen, and use it for more than a couple months: Littman Cardiology is the go to stethoscope afaik.
Click to expand...


That was my first thought, too, when I read the thread's title. But it's more a stethoscope one aspires to own, not starts out with.

Jejunum is right, the cheapest thing you can find. As has been said, Littman is first choice by me in any price range, but darned near anything will work well enough to take bp's and the like, at least at first.

If there comes a time that it becomes necessary to have fine discrimination in sounds heard, well, then the Cardiology is the answer---still have the head from my Cardiology II.
 
Cheap single head from any medical/nurse supply store. Get better eartips for comfort and to lessen the vise grip feel of a new stethoscope.

DRG puretones are another brand to look at. Designed in part by Bose but actually in a lower price bracket. Arguably louder than littmans which is good if she is just doing BPs.
 
james1701 said:
I tell all the students, that is what to get. You are not listening for heart defects, just wheezes, and blood pressures. Save your money for things like scrubs, and lunch.
Click to expand...

As a high school student, she's probably mostly using the scope to take blood pressure, and maybe listen to some lungs and GI tract noise in adults. For those things, the cheapest is plenty. (just highlighting the reason why cheap is adequate)

You can buy her a nicer one when she gets into medical school. Get her a little name tag thingy too, so it will get returned when she leaves it somewhere in the hospital. (Everyone uses the same Littman. Without the nametags, they all look the same from a distance)
 
<---- Paramedic

The Littmann Lightweight is a decent one.

Biggest thing is get good earpieces. I prefer the soft rubber ones. Buy a cheap one and get the "good" ear pieces. SHe should be set until she knows exactly which one she needs.
 
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