And some will say they are wasteful too, but I think medicine is the only sector that gets almost a free pass when it comes to single-use plastics. It can be lifesaving.
Yeah. I wish there were better materials for them to use but I'm not even sure recycled plastic is safe in a hospital (most likely not). And I'm assuming they can't recycle these things either.
@@edarddragon Yeah I assumed so but I was thinking that maybe the heat would fix that somehow? I have no idea about what happens in the recycling process
I had a lecture today about planetary medicine (I'm a med student in Germany) and what shocked me was that in Germany, the medical sector produces more greenhouse gases (through waste and energy usage) than air travel. So yeah, I concur with the sentiment that we kind of get a free pass for saving lives, but the extent it still shocking.
“How are their lung sounds/bowel tones?” “Honestly, I have no idea because I had to use the isolation stethoscope” -An actual conversation that happened during report last week.
We had a few even here in the U.K when my son was moved to a individual room instead of the 4 bed bay ward because he had Rsv, bronchiolitis, and a bacterial chest infection. I had so much fun trying trying learn heart chambers and lung lobe sounds only to realise that the sounds were so distorted after a consultant gave me hers to try out when she caught me practising on my partner.
@@khalidalamin8069 Yes, he was just shy of 7 months of age when he got all these. He is a gastrostomy fed child but a happy fun 4 year old with ASD now. Xxx
@@melthedragon5468 I would think for patients Covid, MRSA, RSV, Tb (as you suggested); Bad strep (the flesh-eating kind), Also for immunocompromised patients.
In most cases of possible infection we just clean ours with ethanol or put a glove around the stethoscope haha, so these are mostly used by nurses and at the OR
As a nurse in my country (Caribbean won't say specific island) what we well I more less do is just clean my stephoscope with alcohol as thoroughly as possible an I normally carry it on my pant leg pocket not my neck so from my pant pocket I swab up then go to my next patient then swab after patient
These aren’t single use; they are single-patient stethoscopes. This is better than back in the day when stethoscopes were purchased by practitioners (RN’s and Docs) and were carried from room to room, usually around that person’s neck. That these stethoscopes are not decent quality, though, concerns me, because a stethoscope is an important diagnostic tool.
"These aren’t single use; they are single-patient stethoscopes." He kinda explained that in the video when he said they are assigned to a patient and not a doctor.
I’ve used those a lot. You’re right about then being uncomfortable. After losing TWO good stethoscopes at my last job-dumb me left them behind but another dumb took them-i gave up and resorted to using that mess. On the other hand, I’ve seen many doctors put plastic gloves over the bell when examining a patient with an infectious disease, so I guess they might agree with you , too.
That's why I buy good quality pediatric stethoscopes for myself. No one is game to steal the bright pink stethoscope with the koala face on the bell. Although I work with animals, not humans, and they don't care if the medical equipment I use on them looks like a child's toy 😂 I imagine human adult patients might not always be so blasè.
I wonder if Littmann could make some sort of disposable ear adapter for them. Much like a glove, you'd grab one, slip it on, and it'd soften them and provide better isolation.
this is a pretty good idea. I use a disposable glove around mine but it looks pretty sketchy and unprofessional. something that looks fit for purpose would be better
@@EmEm78 there are some things you just can't reliably clean that quickly. For example, at the barber, they cut someone's hair every 20 minutes or so and they have multiple sets of combs, scissors and clippers because they have to sterilize the tools between customers, but the sanitizing liquid takes more than 20 minutes to be effective. You'd need a process that was basically instant and 100% reliable, which if possible, I assume would be very expensive. Much better to have some kind of barrier that could be removed between patients. With regular every day check ups you can do fine by wiping with alcohol or whatever, but with really infectious diseases you really don't want to risk a few surviving in the cracks and crevices you missed
I have used some of those as well, hate them with a passion. Once I used one of these, turns out the earpiece was a bit...... Let's go with defective, so the inner metal tube would slide out of the earpiece and well almost pierced my eardrum since that tube had sharp edge, thank god I caught that as soon as I put it on or something would have gone seriously wrong
Yes!!! I’m Glad I’m not the only one. I can never hear anything but ambient noise with those. I started putting a glove on top of my stethoscope and throwing away the glove after I’m done with the patient. I can hear much better with this method.
I can never hear much through them.. I use my own and wipe it with a bleach/alcohol wipe right after (depending on the infection) Sure it means my stethoscope will need replacing more often, but it seems worth it to me
@@ingrid44556 Lol. Hi from the Ambulance driver (as I am sure you will call us) who brings the patients to you with never any idea of the infectious nature of whatever they have on them. Always same stethascope, always same stretcher, always same uniform with barely ever contact precautions. You have got no idea what is on most patients, especially if we had them first, so get off your high horse and be glad someone takes cleaning their kit regularly seriously.
@@classicambo9781 Respectfully, what protocol do you use after each patient to disinfect your gear? What you are describing makes sense, I guess, pre-Covid, but I’m worried for you and other patients if you’re not being provided disposable gowns and sheets for transport. Am I in LaLaLand?
YUP. I see my coworkers use their stethoscopes on COVID patients and pop them back around their neck and never clean them. Mine gets thrown over my (gowned, if contact iso) shoulder until it's cleaned. Every patient. When you find out that person you've been taking care of for a week has just tested positive, you know it's worth wiping things down for everyone.
At my hospital we used to have that kind, now they gave us a new kind, and the earpieces they don’t even go in your ears without bending out of shape. It’s crazy annoying. I usually just bring my own stethoscope in and then bleach the heck out of it
I remember when I was little, I was in the hospital for a week and missed Christmas because I had pneumonia. The hospital staff bought all the kids who were sick in the hospital presents and they let me keep that stethoscope after I was sent home. I am forever grateful and will never forget their kindness!
A few years ago I saw a lecture by someone who actual 3D printed stethoscopes for doctors in area's where it was otherwise impossible to get them. The most amazing part was that they tested them and the medical staff could actually hear almost the same through them as the ones used in regular hospitals. I was deeply impressed.
Be careful and always clean the ear pieces throughly! I was a paramedic and we had shared stethoscopes on our stretchers. My partner once got an ear infection from one and had green pus coming out of her ear.
I felt that way before med school, but once you start going on the wards you have to get over that pretty quickly when every consultant is always wanting to borrow your stethoscope because they never carry their own.
@@motorinmysoup9912 Always clean them, and clean yours regularly too! I think ear infections can happen this way, but at the very least ear acne happens to me when I didn't clean my ear pieces enough... Seriously, even my good stethoscope hurt to put in my ear...
When my former mother inlaw was in the hospital the doctor gave one just like that to my granddaughter to entertain her while we were there. He said she could keep them, I thought that was really sweet.
FISHER PRICE STETHOSCOPE! That's what we call them. A few brands have a softer ear piece you can swap out. Not Litman soft, but slight easier on your ears.
I worked in a BMT unit and every patient had this in their room - we all used it (doctors and nurses) for the usual things, but if the doc suspected something serious with the heart/lungs they'd pull out their littman. I (a nurse) mostly used it for listening to bowel movements and dealing with NG tubes.
*@Doc Schmidt - most musicians have custom silicone inserts to custom fit their IEM’s (in ear monitors) and it would be INCREDIBLY easy to make custom inserts that will fit on any stethoscope!* *They even sell custom kits for $50 online and if you are cheap like me, you can make your own custom ear inserts by making your own silicone using dollartree shower caulk and cornstarch!!!* *Easy Peasy Sir!*
Just a tip for the ear digging. The first time you use bend the ear pieces down. This will cause the spring (the metal band between the ear pieces) to deform and ease how hard they rest on your ears.
I work as a Hospitalist NP. When our COVID surge peaked (more than once) my ears were all but bleeding due to jamming the ear pieces in, desperately trying to hear actual breath sounds.
My son had NEC from being lodged in the birth canal and the obgyn didn't act fast enough...or at all...he had one of these...still have it as a matter of fact. He was also diagnosedwith nystagmus at 3 weeks old...he turned 2 July 5th...was also diagnosed with cerebral palsy just 11 days later...the obgyn that keeps on giving.
Our ward has them- I mean ONE. It's kept on the crash trolley. Despite being a HCA and knowing the store room, clinc room (medical equipment like caths, tubes, gravity infusions ect), treatment room (dressings, staple removers, weight chair, Doppler ect) inside out, I haven't found where they're kept
Storytime: GF was a nursing student and already had years of assistant experience. At the session where vendors get the class all kitted out she starts explaining to her classmates to buy the longest size they have bc you don't need to get as close to a patient if you're trying to discreetly keep some distance. The vendor only brought the small ones they couldn't sell and wasn't too happy about having to put in so many orders for new stock. Which makes me wonder if the patient is contagious shouldn't the disposable scope be longer?
You still need to use your gloved hands to position the chest piece. I’ve never encountered one that is shorter than the user’s arm length. They always have ample room for further stretching
Stethoscopes are generally the same length, there are few inches difference depending on the brand. That said, having a longer stethoscope will in no way help you. If you are within six feet of that person you are exposed to whatever they have. Even if they smell the only way to avoid it is to leave the room. You will have to physically touch the person at some point in order to give meds or take vitals. We use the disposable scopes for patients who have things like Covid, cdiff (infectious diarrhea), tuberculosis, etc, If you need to use a disposable steth you should also be in personal protective equipment. Your PPE is your best bet at protecting yourself.
@@TakenTook I'm a respiratory therapist and my stethoscope is pretty long. It gives me awesome sound. I'm tall and I like the length. I don't have to hunch over as much to get it to reach my patient. Maybe if I were looking for a heart murmur, I'd need a "perfect" stethoscope, but my $70 MDF with its long tubing can find a tension pneumo or atelectasis just fine.
The children are happy to bring them home with them though lol. We got one when I had my son; brought the disposable stethoscope home for our then-4-year-old. It's still around here somewhere.
Singapore dr here. I never knew these were meant to be disposable! All the hospitals I've worked in here don't throw away steths, they just have dedicated steths for contact precaution pts and clean them with alcohol wipes after using.
Yeah, they do that for most regular stethoscopes. However, notice he said “certain infections”. Those are the ones we can’t easily kill with disinfectant. Hence, the disposable stethoscope
I remember the first time I saw these was around h1n1 was around. No one was allowed to bring their own. But they were cleaned and reused after discharged but better than room to room and lack of cleaning..
So MDF has disposable covers for their microscope diaphragms. I think it's a beautiful adaptation. There's still a lot of background noise from the rubbing of the tube, but you can hear better than those horrible things. Oh, and you won't have to worry about using the same one that has been laying around in an isolation room and been passed around like my ex's mistress. A clean one made for a fun toy for my son to play doctor with, though
Worked as a CNA at a veterans home, we had one of these and it actually worked but it was entirely made of plastic and it was our backup stethoscope for when the nurse couldn’t find the normal one
Just learned about it today. For pts in isolation, but my instructors told us not to use it like at all and just bring our own stethoscopes and get an alcohol wipe instead
I used to have one of those (didn't know they were disposable till now) and wondered how doctors could stand that in their ears AND all the loud scratchy noises
My son's been hospitalized 3 times, once in 2012, again in 2013 both for pneumonia, and again in 2014 when he was finally diagnosed with asthma... Yeah there were a LOT of ER trips in there too for any illness he got triggering asthma we didn't know he had... Our pediatrician Really dropped that ball not putting everything together after so many issues. They had these in his room all three hospitalizations.
Well, back in the day, based on my and the charge nurse’s assessment of a patient’s breath sounds, a young resident agreed to order IV furosemide STAT and send the patient to the ICU (we were a cardiac step-down unit). No time for imaging.
Lol. I am granted the pleasure of the disposable yellow device. Once upon a time in 2012, I was tested for MRSA and the result was negative. Every time I am in the hospital, my door is adorned with PPRs hanger. I've given up telling them I've never had MRSA. One day after my kidney transplant, my transplant surgeon walked in. He asked me why I had the PPEs hanging on my door. I told him. He laughed and walked out. Next admit, no MRSA protocol. TG
I got my very first stethoscope for my vet program a few weeks ago and I feel so official and like I know what I'm doing (even though I don't know what I'm listening for)
@@tanya5322 no I think I will stick with small animals, but the vet I'm interning at right now also sees exotics so that will be interesting to learn about since my program only covers small animala
All of our patients get one, not just isolated patients. Can't hear jack with the yellows, but the grey used to actually be great! I still use my own and clean it between otherwise nothing is going to be accurate
I had one of those in my toy box as a kid. Yes, really one of those, not a toy one. My father was very clear about the safety side of using it and I still don't know why I had it.
I wonder what the hospital bills for them, too. I have grabbed one a few times and by the end of my exam I regret having even bothered. Nothing useful can be heard with these things. Why not just make them autoclave-able instead of disposable. Or nice bells and lumen splitters that can be autoclaved and make the tubing and earieces disposable. I just autoclave my Harvey immediately after the exam or don't bring it in at all. It's still fine after nearly a decade of this. Or just step up the disposable game and use dual lumens with better ear pieces.
![[Sub Thai] APT. - ROSÉ & Bruno Mars](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bYjhzP8x_uc/mqdefault.jpg)
And some will say they are wasteful too, but I think medicine is the only sector that gets almost a free pass when it comes to single-use plastics. It can be lifesaving.
Yeah. I wish there were better materials for them to use but I'm not even sure recycled plastic is safe in a hospital (most likely not). And I'm assuming they can't recycle these things either.
@@agereartist3763 most likely they are harazduous waste
@@edarddragon Yeah I assumed so but I was thinking that maybe the heat would fix that somehow? I have no idea about what happens in the recycling process
I had a lecture today about planetary medicine (I'm a med student in Germany) and what shocked me was that in Germany, the medical sector produces more greenhouse gases (through waste and energy usage) than air travel.
So yeah, I concur with the sentiment that we kind of get a free pass for saving lives, but the extent it still shocking.
They get a free pass but we should keep looking for more environmentally friendly methods too☺️
“How are their lung sounds/bowel tones?”
“Honestly, I have no idea because I had to use the isolation stethoscope”
-An actual conversation that happened during report last week.
I was once told by a pulmonologist that if I DID hear something thru those stethoscopes, there is something seriously wrong with the patient. 🤣
At the hospital I work at we only have those.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA THIS IS AMAZONG
@@dimitriostsiampalis364 mega oof
I had one from when I had a pheo removed. I could hear fine through it. I could hear my heartbeat and bowls fine with it.
Ah yes, the Fisher Price stethoscope
😂😂 yes, this is exactly what it feels like.
BAHAHAHH
Yes yes that's very true haha 😂
My First Stethoscope™️
@@EmEm78 LMAOOO PLS IT'S 3 AM HAVE MERCY
And I LOVE when you've got one of these and a PAPR. Charting lung sounds... "Uh, they're breathing..."
The bane of every covid nurse lol
To all the people stuck at home working remote, I’ll trade ya!
Sounds like that time the nurse asked me if I'm still alive since she got no vitals at all from me.
@@kaitan4160 hahaha, wow that's reassuring 😬
We had a few even here in the U.K when my son was moved to a individual room instead of the 4 bed bay ward because he had Rsv, bronchiolitis, and a bacterial chest infection. I had so much fun trying trying learn heart chambers and lung lobe sounds only to realise that the sounds were so distorted after a consultant gave me hers to try out when she caught me practising on my partner.
Is your son better now?
@@khalidalamin8069 Yes, he was just shy of 7 months of age when he got all these. He is a gastrostomy fed child but a happy fun 4 year old with ASD now. Xxx
@@Lost-in-Wonderland Wow! What a miracle baby!
As a respiratory therapist, I can say this is most definitely the worst
I'm currently in school to be an rt, what else are they used on besides tb?
I'm a RT too. The key is to stay completely still
@@melthedragon5468 I would think for patients Covid, MRSA, RSV, Tb (as you suggested); Bad strep (the flesh-eating kind), Also for immunocompromised patients.
@@flautalee3090 thanks man! It helps a lot ^^
Darlene Paramedic here, this one gave me a laugh
In most cases of possible infection we just clean ours with ethanol or put a glove around the stethoscope haha, so these are mostly used by nurses and at the OR
I do that. Place a glove and disinfect with purple wipes.
Yeah I usually end up just cleaning mine. If I can't hear anything it being disposable does me no good.
As a nurse, I never see nurses using these. May as well not listen at all, they are useless.
As a nurse in my country (Caribbean won't say specific island) what we well I more less do is just clean my stephoscope with alcohol as thoroughly as possible an I normally carry it on my pant leg pocket not my neck so from my pant pocket I swab up then go to my next patient then swab after patient
i've never seen _anyone_ actually use them. 😂
These aren’t single use; they are single-patient stethoscopes. This is better than back in the day when stethoscopes were purchased by practitioners (RN’s and Docs) and were carried from room to room, usually around that person’s neck.
That these stethoscopes are not decent quality, though, concerns me, because a stethoscope is an important diagnostic tool.
I mean, they used to diagnose with listening directly over the patient's chest. A stethoscope is probably better than no stethoscope.
"These aren’t single use; they are single-patient stethoscopes."
He kinda explained that in the video when he said they are assigned to a patient and not a doctor.
@@ConstantlyDamaged You are correct. I was responding to comments that referred to these stethoscopes as single-use, that’s all.
They are still carried room to room unless the patient has isolation precautions.
@@susanboyd6592 Thanks for letting me know.
I’ve used those a lot. You’re right about then being uncomfortable. After losing TWO good stethoscopes at my last job-dumb me left them behind but another dumb took them-i gave up and resorted to using that mess. On the other hand, I’ve seen many doctors put plastic gloves over the bell when examining a patient with an infectious disease, so I guess they might agree with you , too.
That's why I buy good quality pediatric stethoscopes for myself. No one is game to steal the bright pink stethoscope with the koala face on the bell. Although I work with animals, not humans, and they don't care if the medical equipment I use on them looks like a child's toy 😂 I imagine human adult patients might not always be so blasè.
@@EmEm78 Uh skuze me I want bright pink koala stethoscope
I have never once heard a single heart sound out of one of those damn things in 3 years of nursing and two years of CNA.
I wonder if Littmann could make some sort of disposable ear adapter for them.
Much like a glove, you'd grab one, slip it on, and it'd soften them and provide better isolation.
@bose you make the best ear tips seems like a win win
Yes! And multiple doctors will be using the same stethoscope, so there should be disposable ear coverings to keep the doctor's ears safe.
Weird that they don't make some kind of stethoscope condom that you leave with the patient so you can all use your nice ones
this is a pretty good idea. I use a disposable glove around mine but it looks pretty sketchy and unprofessional. something that looks fit for purpose would be better
Please make stethoscope condoms happen!
Sounds nice, but you still have to touch the patient with your gloved hands and then touch your stethoscope. I just wipe mine down between rooms.
Just clean them between patients? Although I'm sure I've seen plastic stethoscope covers somewhere...
@@EmEm78 there are some things you just can't reliably clean that quickly.
For example, at the barber, they cut someone's hair every 20 minutes or so and they have multiple sets of combs, scissors and clippers because they have to sterilize the tools between customers, but the sanitizing liquid takes more than 20 minutes to be effective.
You'd need a process that was basically instant and 100% reliable, which if possible, I assume would be very expensive.
Much better to have some kind of barrier that could be removed between patients.
With regular every day check ups you can do fine by wiping with alcohol or whatever, but with really infectious diseases you really don't want to risk a few surviving in the cracks and crevices you missed
I have used some of those as well, hate them with a passion.
Once I used one of these, turns out the earpiece was a bit...... Let's go with defective, so the inner metal tube would slide out of the earpiece and well almost pierced my eardrum since that tube had sharp edge, thank god I caught that as soon as I put it on or something would have gone seriously wrong
Yes!!! I’m
Glad I’m not the only one. I can never hear anything but ambient noise with those. I started putting a glove on top of my stethoscope and throwing away the glove after I’m done with the patient. I can hear much better with this method.
It feels like you have wine corks jammed in your ears.
I can never hear much through them.. I use my own and wipe it with a bleach/alcohol wipe right after (depending on the infection) Sure it means my stethoscope will need replacing more often, but it seems worth it to me
Thanks for spreading MDRs all over the hospital
@@ingrid44556 Lol. Hi from the Ambulance driver (as I am sure you will call us) who brings the patients to you with never any idea of the infectious nature of whatever they have on them. Always same stethascope, always same stretcher, always same uniform with barely ever contact precautions. You have got no idea what is on most patients, especially if we had them first, so get off your high horse and be glad someone takes cleaning their kit regularly seriously.
@@ingrid44556 if they clean it with bleach/alcohol it kills the bacteria. How do you think handgel works to stop the spread?
@@classicambo9781 Respectfully, what protocol do you use after each patient to disinfect your gear? What you are describing makes sense, I guess, pre-Covid, but I’m worried for you and other patients if you’re not being provided disposable gowns and sheets for transport. Am I in LaLaLand?
@@classicambo9781 you forgot to put one thing in your comment... *MIC DROP*
Im an orthopedic surgeon… what’s that for?
Probably tuberculosis...
😅
Other body parts you don't worry about lolol
It's for the yucky parts
🤣😅🤣🤣
They do come in handy in a shop.
Makes it easier to figure out where the noise in the engine is coming from.
Honestly its so easy to wipe down a stethoscope, and it should be a routine like foam in foam out, particularly for patients on contact precautions.
YUP. I see my coworkers use their stethoscopes on COVID patients and pop them back around their neck and never clean them. Mine gets thrown over my (gowned, if contact iso) shoulder until it's cleaned. Every patient. When you find out that person you've been taking care of for a week has just tested positive, you know it's worth wiping things down for everyone.
Oh, thank you for this. It is nice to have company. It makes the negative seem not as bad when you are not by yourself.
At my hospital we used to have that kind, now they gave us a new kind, and the earpieces they don’t even go in your ears without bending out of shape. It’s crazy annoying. I usually just bring my own stethoscope in and then bleach the heck out of it
you bleach it immediately, before going to see other patients?
The true use of these stethoscopes is to give the doctor a 30-second thinking break while he/she pretends to auscultate the patients heart and lungs 😂
I remember when I was little, I was in the hospital for a week and missed Christmas because I had pneumonia. The hospital staff bought all the kids who were sick in the hospital presents and they let me keep that stethoscope after I was sent home. I am forever grateful and will never forget their kindness!
This is amazing! As a nurse, I agree wholeheartedly!! You can't hear anything!!
A few years ago I saw a lecture by someone who actual 3D printed stethoscopes for doctors in area's where it was otherwise impossible to get them. The most amazing part was that they tested them and the medical staff could actually hear almost the same through them as the ones used in regular hospitals.
I was deeply impressed.
They are the worst, when I was a CNA I would clean them and send them home with the patient vs throwing them away.
That's awesome though! I'm sure the patients loved the extra gift. I know I enjoy any take home items 😂
@@ShinigamisBlade If its not sharps or meds and we are going to throw it away anyway in their bag it goes!!!
Antithesis of their purpose 🤦♀️
Be careful and always clean the ear pieces throughly! I was a paramedic and we had shared stethoscopes on our stretchers. My partner once got an ear infection from one and had green pus coming out of her ear.
LOL. So true! I clean them and send them home with my patients so they or their sibs can play with them
I always feel icky putting something in my eat that's been someone else's.
I felt that way before med school, but once you start going on the wards you have to get over that pretty quickly when every consultant is always wanting to borrow your stethoscope because they never carry their own.
I just store alcohol pads in my pocket so I can clean them real quick before and after. No reason to spread ear wax
@@motorinmysoup9912 Always clean them, and clean yours regularly too! I think ear infections can happen this way, but at the very least ear acne happens to me when I didn't clean my ear pieces enough... Seriously, even my good stethoscope hurt to put in my ear...
Lung sounds- “diminished.” Every patient who’s on isolation precautions.
When my former mother inlaw was in the hospital the doctor gave one just like that to my granddaughter to entertain her while we were there. He said she could keep them, I thought that was really sweet.
Can't believe I used such almost through out my internship
Which is why all the residents and surgeons find me to borrow my Littman.
@@suedawn5784 littman are good qualities
Awesome 👏🏽 way to educate ppl.
As a nurse, I appreciate the videos from you and Nurse Julie (you gotta check out her videos too).
A more comfortable, cheaper version seems like a potential sales opportunity
FISHER PRICE STETHOSCOPE! That's what we call them. A few brands have a softer ear piece you can swap out. Not Litman soft, but slight easier on your ears.
"Think of the children" 🤣🤣😂🤣🤣🤣🤣😂🤣🤣🤣 I nearly died laughing.....OMG 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Yasss! I agree! I’ve seen and used them on oncology units where patients are neutropenic..
Ahahahahahah “think at the children” 😂😂😂 You’re so funny!!! Btw, I thing the hard plastic earpieces are designed by Satan in person. Ouch!!
Ah so that's why my stetoschope so cheap
I can't hear a thing with these in covid rooms with all the noise from the negative pressure fans.
Worked in a Care Home for a time. These where für only ones we had. Basically These where ok for blood pressure.
I worked in a BMT unit and every patient had this in their room - we all used it (doctors and nurses) for the usual things, but if the doc suspected something serious with the heart/lungs they'd pull out their littman. I (a nurse) mostly used it for listening to bowel movements and dealing with NG tubes.
This reminds me of the toy stethoscope I had in my play doctor kit as a kid lol
I had one in my room when I was hospitalized as a kid with tonsillitis, never got used by the doctors but it became a neat souvenir when I left!
*@Doc Schmidt - most musicians have custom silicone inserts to custom fit their IEM’s (in ear monitors) and it would be INCREDIBLY easy to make custom inserts that will fit on any stethoscope!*
*They even sell custom kits for $50 online and if you are cheap like me, you can make your own custom ear inserts by making your own silicone using dollartree shower caulk and cornstarch!!!*
*Easy Peasy Sir!*
Purple wiiiiipes.. to the rescue! Or orange... depends on the infection, of course. ☺
🤣🤣 I’ve also seen them used like dunce caps by staff when they forget their own.
'Think of the children' got me 🤣🤣
Now imagine how uncomfortable your dying patient is.
My dad is a pharmacist and used one of these to measure blood pressure. Thankfully we now have an electronic gadget for that.
Just a tip for the ear digging. The first time you use bend the ear pieces down. This will cause the spring (the metal band between the ear pieces) to deform and ease how hard they rest on your ears.
I work as a Hospitalist NP. When our COVID surge peaked (more than once) my ears were all but bleeding due to jamming the ear pieces in, desperately trying to hear actual breath sounds.
I had one of those last visit. Had to be cleared to work by my infectious disease specialist. Had to keep my arm covered for 8 months.
My son had NEC from being lodged in the birth canal and the obgyn didn't act fast enough...or at all...he had one of these...still have it as a matter of fact. He was also diagnosedwith nystagmus at 3 weeks old...he turned 2 July 5th...was also diagnosed with cerebral palsy just 11 days later...the obgyn that keeps on giving.
Our ward has them- I mean ONE. It's kept on the crash trolley. Despite being a HCA and knowing the store room, clinc room (medical equipment like caths, tubes, gravity infusions ect), treatment room (dressings, staple removers, weight chair, Doppler ect) inside out, I haven't found where they're kept
"Sweet dancing Jehovah! I've punctured my brain!"
Storytime: GF was a nursing student and already had years of assistant experience. At the session where vendors get the class all kitted out she starts explaining to her classmates to buy the longest size they have bc you don't need to get as close to a patient if you're trying to discreetly keep some distance. The vendor only brought the small ones they couldn't sell and wasn't too happy about having to put in so many orders for new stock. Which makes me wonder if the patient is contagious shouldn't the disposable scope be longer?
Now that's some good advice
You still need to use your gloved hands to position the chest piece. I’ve never encountered one that is shorter than the user’s arm length. They always have ample room for further stretching
Stethoscopes are generally the same length, there are few inches difference depending on the brand. That said, having a longer stethoscope will in no way help you. If you are within six feet of that person you are exposed to whatever they have. Even if they smell the only way to avoid it is to leave the room. You will have to physically touch the person at some point in order to give meds or take vitals. We use the disposable scopes for patients who have things like Covid, cdiff (infectious diarrhea), tuberculosis, etc, If you need to use a disposable steth you should also be in personal protective equipment. Your PPE is your best bet at protecting yourself.
@@TakenTook I'm a respiratory therapist and my stethoscope is pretty long. It gives me awesome sound. I'm tall and I like the length. I don't have to hunch over as much to get it to reach my patient. Maybe if I were looking for a heart murmur, I'd need a "perfect" stethoscope, but my $70 MDF with its long tubing can find a tension pneumo or atelectasis just fine.
The amount of money insurance charges, you'd think they could afford proper stethoscopes
Microlife used to bundle this torture device with their manual tonometers. I feel them burrowing into my brain just by looking at the image.
Yup. Hated them as a nurse tech.
The children are happy to bring them home with them though lol. We got one when I had my son; brought the disposable stethoscope home for our then-4-year-old. It's still around here somewhere.
Singapore dr here. I never knew these were meant to be disposable! All the hospitals I've worked in here don't throw away steths, they just have dedicated steths for contact precaution pts and clean them with alcohol wipes after using.
They're intentionally made painful so staff will not buy cheap stethoscopes instead of the much more expensive comfortable ones
Our disposal ones are red... but everything else... same 🤣
If only there was a way to kill all the germs on a normal stethoscope…
Exactly. These are props whose sole purpose is to encourage the patient to sit up and take some deep breaths.
Yeah, they do that for most regular stethoscopes. However, notice he said “certain infections”. Those are the ones we can’t easily kill with disinfectant. Hence, the disposable stethoscope
@@cloaker7237 aka CDiff for one!
I remember the first time I saw these was around h1n1 was around. No one was allowed to bring their own. But they were cleaned and reused after discharged but better than room to room and lack of cleaning..
So MDF has disposable covers for their microscope diaphragms. I think it's a beautiful adaptation. There's still a lot of background noise from the rubbing of the tube, but you can hear better than those horrible things. Oh, and you won't have to worry about using the same one that has been laying around in an isolation room and been passed around like my ex's mistress. A clean one made for a fun toy for my son to play doctor with, though
I have been a droplet precaution patient multiple times. I think that's when they gowned and masked and had disposable stethascopes.
That yellow one is honestly pretty good...
He’s like “me, I’m children”
my aunt whos a nurse gave me one of these as a kid and i thought all stethoscopes were like this until just now lol
As a physician, I actually thought this was a toy the first time I saw one!
Sounds exactly like my toy stethoscope from childhood. :)
Worked as a CNA at a veterans home, we had one of these and it actually worked but it was entirely made of plastic and it was our backup stethoscope for when the nurse couldn’t find the normal one
Yesss! I dang near have cauliflower ear from those war pieces!!
Just learned about it today. For pts in isolation, but my instructors told us not to use it like at all and just bring our own stethoscopes and get an alcohol wipe instead
Oh that’s actually wonderful. I wish they were better and more comfortable for doctors to use.
lmao why not just get a Littman Cardiology IV. 200 bucks is a drop in the bucket for a patient who's hospital stay will probably total 50K
I used to have one of those (didn't know they were disposable till now) and wondered how doctors could stand that in their ears AND all the loud scratchy noises
My son's been hospitalized 3 times, once in 2012, again in 2013 both for pneumonia, and again in 2014 when he was finally diagnosed with asthma... Yeah there were a LOT of ER trips in there too for any illness he got triggering asthma we didn't know he had... Our pediatrician Really dropped that ball not putting everything together after so many issues.
They had these in his room all three hospitalizations.
An obsolete anachronism worn only as a badge (of honor). Have you ever heard anything that you from ordering imaging?😂😂
Well, back in the day, based on my and the charge nurse’s assessment of a patient’s breath sounds, a young resident agreed to order IV furosemide STAT and send the patient to the ICU (we were a cardiac step-down unit). No time for imaging.
Lol. I am granted the pleasure of the disposable yellow device. Once upon a time in 2012, I was tested for MRSA and the result was negative. Every time I am in the hospital, my door is adorned with PPRs hanger. I've given up telling them I've never had MRSA. One day after my kidney transplant, my transplant surgeon walked in. He asked me why I had the PPEs hanging on my door. I told him. He laughed and walked out. Next admit, no MRSA protocol. TG
I’ve never in my hospital life have seen a doctor go into an iso room to listen to anything.
Being a paramedic student, I get issued these a lot when doing ER time and I'd honestly rather just put my ear to the patients chest at this point
Alcohol wipes with each patient.
I'm imagining they feel like those plastic toy stethoscopes.
This is very true. They hurt so much.
Every single covid patient has “diminished” breath sounds because I can’t here a thing with those torture devices.
I feel you, Dr, when you're literally trying to analyze what you hear when using them while your ears hurt😁
I got my very first stethoscope for my vet program a few weeks ago and I feel so official and like I know what I'm doing (even though I don't know what I'm listening for)
Considering Large Animal practice at all?
@@tanya5322 no I think I will stick with small animals, but the vet I'm interning at right now also sees exotics so that will be interesting to learn about since my program only covers small animala
The best is that you tell the truth in a funny way
Love your work man!
We call them tinker toy stethoscopes. They are USELESS!!!!!
Trying to hear anything with a HEPA filter going is almost impossible.
All of our patients get one, not just isolated patients. Can't hear jack with the yellows, but the grey used to actually be great! I still use my own and clean it between otherwise nothing is going to be accurate
When you were using the disposable stethoscope, did you notice the ear buds touching in the middle as you used them?!?!?
LOL
Those were used on me in L&D. I guess pregnancy is something they didn't want to spread. 😂😂😂
I had one of those in my toy box as a kid. Yes, really one of those, not a toy one. My father was very clear about the safety side of using it and I still don't know why I had it.
I wonder what the hospital bills for them, too.
I have grabbed one a few times and by the end of my exam I regret having even bothered. Nothing useful can be heard with these things.
Why not just make them autoclave-able instead of disposable. Or nice bells and lumen splitters that can be autoclaved and make the tubing and earieces disposable.
I just autoclave my Harvey immediately after the exam or don't bring it in at all. It's still fine after nearly a decade of this.
Or just step up the disposable game and use dual lumens with better ear pieces.
Doctor: say "ahhhh"
Patient: "bregghhdiowpcshhhhhhhh"