A special stethoscope?

[Lucky~13]

Just finished Day 1 of my First Responder classes. Man they expect ya to learn alot! :shock: No biggie though, I think I'm gonna like this career. And I plan on aceing this class. I'll almost have to be the best in the class, I'm the only taking it for dedicated EMS, everyone else is a hose jockey!

Anyways, on to my question. One of the things I need to provide for the class is a stethoscope. But I'm technically deaf in my left ear. It's never really hindered me and I don't think it will for EMS. But should I get a special stethoscope? Do they even make them? should I worry about it?

Just for the record, they all know of my condition. I get a hearing test every year, I've shown them my last test, no one has a problem with my slight disability.

[ncmedic309]

It's actually quite common that some EMTs and Paramedics have hearing problems. They make special scopes and some services will even buy them for you if it's a necessity to do the job. I don't have any direct links to companies but if you do a search, you shouldn't have any problems finding a good scope to suit your needs.

[PRPGfirerescuetech]

Just finished Day 1 of my First Responder classes. Man they expect ya to learn alot! :shock: No biggie though, I think I'm gonna like this career. And I plan on aceing this class. I'll almost have to be the best in the class, I'm the only taking it for dedicated EMS, everyone else is a hose jockey!

Anyways, on to my question. One of the things I need to provide for the class is a stethoscope. But I'm technically deaf in my left ear. It's never really hindered me and I don't think it will for EMS. But should I get a special stethoscope? Do they even make them? should I worry about it?

Just for the record, they all know of my condition. I get a hearing test every year, I've shown them my last test, no one has a problem with my slight disability.

allheart.com....scopes with electronic amplifiers

[paramedicmike]

There was a thread on here not too long ago dealing with the hearing impaired and jobs in EMS. (I'm not saying you're hearing impaired. That was just the subject of the thread.)

There was at least on other person who was either partially or completely deaf in one ear (I think. It's late. I'm tired.).

Try a search to see what you can come up with. I'd help you out with it but as I just mentioned it's late, I'm tired, I have to get up early, and right now I'm just too damn lazy. Nothing personal.

Good luck.

-be safe.

[Dustdevil]

I can't say that this is something I have specifically looked into before, but I would venture a guess that one of the key reasons that stethoscopes have two earpieces is because it doubles the chances that you will be able to hear. If we all had two good ears, we'd only need one earpiece on a stethoscope. If one ear works just fine, then you should not need anything special. Of course, you will only know this by practising with a teaching scope so you'll know if your readings are falling in line with the norm of your instructors and others. If so, then I certainly wouldn't waste any money on an amplified scope. Again, you only need one ear to take a BP. When I had an ear infection, I only used one earpiece and it worked just fine.

The only thing amplified scopes are really good for is heart and lung sounds, and a normal scope will do a fine job on most of them too. For use in taking blood pressures, which is the vast majority of what an EMT uses her scope for, I think there is an issue of using electronic scopes because they may give you significantly different readings from an unamplified scope.

If you can avoid using an electronic scope, I would.

[Just Plain Ruff]

I had an experience where someone on scene fired a gun about 12 inches from my left ear. I had significant hearing loss in that ear for about a week. I had no problem with hearing a BP or lung sounds with my right ear.

[kristinaemtb]

I bought one for $229.00

I am partially deaf in my left ear. Look up stethoscopes and pick a sight. They also have a digital reading on them also. But they are not cheap!

I just looked mine up.It is a Littman 3M.The receipt says $269.00. I love mine. The reading is very accurate!

You can try www.standris.com, but they are pricey. Or go to eBay! Hope that helps ya!

[Callthemedic]

Concur with Dust:

I have bilateral tinitis with loss in the high ranges . My amplified steth is more difficult to use for BPs because I hear across a broader range than normal. I would rather be a little narrow than too wide on my BPs so I use a regular cardiology scope.

I wear hearing aids and have never found any kind of adapter for the steth so I have to take them out to steth and put them back for hx taking so I don't have time to second-guess my reading.