I am a respiratory therapy student. My first stethoscope was a used Littmann Classic II SE. I found it to be not very comfortable. Also, something the previous owner did to it made it not work very well (something I didn’t find out until this semester).
The one I have now is a totally generic $35 stethoscope from my school bookstore. It’s decent but I’d really like an awesome piece.
I want to be able to hear everything, every little crackle and wheeze. I want to actually be able to tell the difference between diminished breath sounds and decent breath sounds (everything sounds diminished to me now). I can get by for now because my preceptor is always there to confirm what I’m hearing but I’ll be alone a lot more next semester and I need to be confident that I’m hearing what’s really there (and what’s not).
So, next week I’ll be able to spend up to $300 on a stethoscope* and I want to know what you like and don’t like and why, so that I can go into this a bit more educated.
I’m also hoping to get a student therapist job starting this summer so I REALLY need to actually be able to hear the damn lung sounds clearly.
*Last semester I had an opportunity to use a Littmann electronic for a few minutes and it almost brought tears to my eyes. But, I think that’s a bit excessive for someone who’s not actually hard of hearing.