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Best stethoscope for medical students?

Hi all
I want to know what’s the best stethoscope for medical students? Littmann Cradiology III or Classic III?

Also, I heard Cardiology III does not have a bell, does that make a difference at all? Will a bell give me advantage in OSCEs for example?

I will very much appreciate your advice.

Reply 1

Helenia

20

Original post by A6666

Hi all
I want to know what’s the best stethoscope for medical students? Littmann Cradiology III or Classic III?

Also, I heard Cardiology III does not have a bell, does that make a difference at all? Will a bell give me advantage in OSCEs for example?

I will very much appreciate your advice.

The cardiology III does have a bell (or at least 2 sides) it's the master cardiology that doesn't. You don't need any more than the standard classic II/III, and nor do most qualified doctors, but it depends how tight money is as to how much you want to splash out

Reply 2

Nottie

18

Littmann classic is all you need.

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

Littmann classic is honestly all you need the cardiology is great but literally I got so embarrassed carrying it around after one of the consultants was using one of those single use stethoscopes and after me being utterly incompetent in my osce with a really fancy stethoscope hahahaha
I’ve stored my cardiology away will use when I start working 😂

Reply 4

Someone123123

11

I'd advise you to get the best stethoscope you can afford. It would be a good investment - stethoscopes will not wear down and do not have expiry dates. It will serve you well during medical school years and beyond. I had a Littmann classic (I think) but couldn't hear much with it. No doubt that was partially due to my inexperience at auscultating, but when I bought a better stethoscope (cardiology III) I found it helped me a lot.

Reply 5

Ghotay

13

Original post by Someone123123

I'd advise you to get the best stethoscope you can afford. It would be a good investment - stethoscopes will not wear down and do not have expiry dates. It will serve you well during medical school years and beyond. I had a Littmann classic (I think) but couldn't hear much with it. No doubt that was partially due to my inexperience at auscultating, but when I bought a better stethoscope (cardiology III) I found it helped me a lot.

Disagree with this. The plastic will wear out eventually. My brother had to replace his after about 10-15 years of use. Which is a long time, but not forever like you're suggesting.

Also something that people overlook is that stethoscopes go astray. A lot! You're carrying and putting it down everywhere, and sometimes they get picked up and never returned. Luckily I've never lost mine for more than a day, but I really can't sit still when it's gone because it was so damn expensive. I lost my student stethoscope in final year, and know 2 people who have lost their so far in F1 (one of which was borrowed by an anaesthetist during an emergency, and never reappeared).

Reply 6

ahorey

10

Don’t get anything fancier than a classic - you might not be allowed to use a cardiac one for osces anyway.

There’s also a reason most doctors have a name tag on their stethoscopes 😜

Don’t be that first year who has the super fancy all singing stethoscope, a standard one with your name on it is just as nice :smile:

Reply 7

Someone123123

11

Original post by Ghotay

Disagree with this. The plastic will wear out eventually. My brother had to replace his after about 10-15 years of use. Which is a long time, but not forever like you're suggesting.

Fair enough, but even so, that is a considerable amount of time. For something you may very well use every day of your working life during that period, I think it's worth investing in something high quality.

Reply 8

Helenia

20

I'm on steth no.4 now - the last 3 have gone walkabout on various ICUs/ED resus depts. I've gone back to a classic - couldn't justify the additional expense and on a pragmatic note my patients all get echoed/chest CT/US if there's the slightest hint of a murmur etc, so I'm rarely using it to make a concrete diagnosis beyond "tube in right hole."

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 9

itsbrainsurgery

9

Original post by A6666

Hi all
I want to know what’s the best stethoscope for medical students? Littmann Cradiology III or Classic III?

Also, I heard Cardiology III does not have a bell, does that make a difference at all? Will a bell give me advantage in OSCEs for example?

I will very much appreciate your advice.

I gave mine away after thinking I no longer need it when I got my number. (Definitely a mistake, so now on the hunt for another one)

I (along with many other med students) got the Classic on entering med school - I thought that was adequate.

has a stethoscope story, I will let him tell it himself.

Reply 10

Swansea Medic

9

Original post by A6666

Hi all
I want to know what’s the best stethoscope for medical students? Littmann Cradiology III or Classic III?

Also, I heard Cardiology III does not have a bell, does that make a difference at all? Will a bell give me advantage in OSCEs for example?

I will very much appreciate your advice.

I recommend this one: https://www.medisave.co.uk/littmann-electronic-3200-12-track-stethoscope.html

You will look fly and everyone else will bow down to you. If you enter a Cardio or Resp OSCE, you'll get an instant pass too! I heard you can hear thoughts on auscultation if you switch it to the right setting which'll be very handy on a Psych placement

Get me one too please! :smile:

Reply 11

seaholme

19

Original post by Ghotay

Disagree with this. The plastic will wear out eventually. My brother had to replace his after about 10-15 years of use. Which is a long time, but not forever like you're suggesting.

I 'inherited' my dad's Littman stethoscope as a student which had a good 20 years of work behind it prior to me, of which the last 5 had not been in active service - the plastic around the bell and the ear buds had wasted, so one day the earbuds just split and fell off and the bell bit too. Happily you can buy replacement bells, earbuds etc. from Littman for way cheaper than a new steth and all was well :P

Having said that, by the time things are disintegrating unless you are a cheapo student (like me) it's kind of tempting to just replace the whole thing anyway xP
I got bought a new one as a gift for graduation and haven't touched my 'antique' steth since!

Reply 12

Anonymous #2

I also have a stethoscope question.. I'm starting F1 this August, I've been using the standard Classic II (I think) for med school, I vaguely remember getting a discount to buy this in first year for joining BMA or something similar.

I feel like my hearing is not great, nothing officially checked or diagnosed, I'm looking into getting this sorted now as I just haven't had time this year with finals etc I can hear using my steth, but sometimes i really seem to struggle with this if I'm on a noisy ward, more so that other students. I have to listen for longer and reefy concentrate. I'm ok if it's a quiet side room with nobody else around the bed chatting. In the past, I've actually gone back to examine patients later with no other students chattering around the bed and it's made a big difference so my issue seems to be background noise.

My question is, would it be worth my while upgrading my stethoscope to one of the cardiology ones? Are there actual differences is sound quality? I don't mind paying the money if it will help. I'm probably answering my own questions here but maybe I should borrow a cardiology one from a friend, try it out for a day and see if I can hear better with it.

Reply 13

Democracy

20

Original post by Anonymous

I also have a stethoscope question.. I'm starting F1 this August, I've been using the standard Classic II (I think) for med school, I vaguely remember getting a discount to buy this in first year for joining BMA or something similar.

I feel like my hearing is not great, nothing officially checked or diagnosed, I'm looking into getting this sorted now as I just haven't had time this year with finals etc I can hear using my steth, but sometimes i really seem to struggle with this if I'm on a noisy ward, more so that other students. I have to listen for longer and reefy concentrate. I'm ok if it's a quiet side room with nobody else around the bed chatting. In the past, I've actually gone back to examine patients later with no other students chattering around the bed and it's made a big difference so my issue seems to be background noise.

My question is, would it be worth my while upgrading my stethoscope to one of the cardiology ones? Are there actual differences is sound quality? I don't mind paying the money if it will help. I'm probably answering my own questions here but maybe I should borrow a cardiology one from a friend, try it out for a day and see if I can hear better with it.

Yeah I also had a Classic II during med school but found it difficult to hear subtler signs at times, particularly in busy/noisy settings. I upgraded to a Cardiology IV for FY1 and found there was a big difference in terms of clarity and amplification of sounds. Well worth it imho.

Reply 14

Ghotay

13

Original post by Democracy

Yeah I also had a Classic II during med school but found it difficult to hear subtler signs at times, particularly in busy/noisy settings. I upgraded to a Cardiology IV for FY1 and found there was a big difference in terms of clarity and amplification of sounds. Well worth it imho.

See I had a similar experience in terms of getting a new steth for F1 and finding I could hear things way better, but I always attributed it to the fact that I was actually using the damn thing on the daily and tuning my ear, unlike at medical school where I tended to avoid wards and patients...

Reply 15

Brachioradialis

18

Original post by Anonymous

I also have a stethoscope question.. I'm starting F1 this August, I've been using the standard Classic II (I think) for med school, I vaguely remember getting a discount to buy this in first year for joining BMA or something similar.

I feel like my hearing is not great, nothing officially checked or diagnosed, I'm looking into getting this sorted now as I just haven't had time this year with finals etc I can hear using my steth, but sometimes i really seem to struggle with this if I'm on a noisy ward, more so that other students. I have to listen for longer and reefy concentrate. I'm ok if it's a quiet side room with nobody else around the bed chatting. In the past, I've actually gone back to examine patients later with no other students chattering around the bed and it's made a big difference so my issue seems to be background noise.

My question is, would it be worth my while upgrading my stethoscope to one of the cardiology ones? Are there actual differences is sound quality? I don't mind paying the money if it will help. I'm probably answering my own questions here but maybe I should borrow a cardiology one from a friend, try it out for a day and see if I can hear better with it.

If it's a genuine hearing issue as opposed to just wanting to make life easier, you could get one of the electronic amplifying attachments: https://ekodevices.com/shop/core-attachment

No good for exams of course but it would certainly make life easier.

Reply 16

Helenia

20

Gah! A week after forking out for a new steth, my old cardiology III has just turned up in the doctors' office!

Reply 17

ShaheerHassan

Original post by A6666

Hi all
I want to know what’s the best stethoscope for medical students? Littmann Cradiology III or Classic III?

Also, I heard Cardiology III does not have a bell, does that make a difference at all? Will a bell give me advantage in OSCEs for example?

I will very much appreciate your advice.

If you're choosing between these two, Classic III is a lot better. Yes, the Bell will give a definite advantage to you in OSCEs especially when doing GPE, or Doing Chest examination both Anterior and Posterior. However, it is better if you go with Cardiology IV, as it has the bell along with more advanced features than Classic III.
In case, you want to compare all the best stethoscopes, you can visit this guide: https://themedmo.com/best-stethoscope/

Best stethoscope for medical students?

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