How to Use a Stethoscope

1. Inspect the stethoscope for quality and damage. The best stethoscopes have a tube for each ear piece rather than a single tube. Also, the best tubing is thick, short, and relatively stiff, with a small bore. Also, make sure that tubing is free of leaks.
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   Find a relatively quiet area to ensure that the body sounds are not overpowered by background noise.
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   Insert each of the two ear pieces into your ears. Be sure that the ear pieces fit snugly and have a good seal to keep out ambient noise. The earpieces can also be tilted slightly forward on some stethoscopes to ensure a better fit.
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   Use the stethoscope on bare skin to avoid picking up the sound of rustling fabric and wet the skin with warm water to avoid sound pollution from the small hairs on the skin.
   • In cold weather, warm up the stethoscope, or the first sound you will hear is a screech from your poor victim.
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   Hold the round part (the chest piece) up to the person's chest or heart. You should hear a steady lub-dub, lub-dub sound.
   • Different heart sounds are best heard at different areas of a person's chest. Also, hearts sounds differ depending on the patient's position: i.e., sitting, standing, lying on one's side, etc.
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   The sound of beating travels through the tube to your ears. The sound depends on whether you are using the bell or the diaphragm and also on the pressure you put on the chest piece.
   • Breathing is best heard with the diaphragm, or flat side of the stethoscope.
   • The diaphragm is used to listen to high pitch sound while the bell is used to listen to low pitch sounds. However, if you put pressure on the bell, it will pick up higher pitch sounds.
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   Using an electronic stethoscope provides amplification so that it is easier to hear heart and lung sounds. This is of significant advantage since heart sounds and lung sounds are very faint.
8. sumber: http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Stethoscope