stethoscope for use with hearing aid?

[suz]

Hello,
I am an RN with an AN and I am soon to get a hearing aid. One challenge I had not considered was how to use a stethoscope while the hearing aid is in my ear. Where does the ear peice of the stethoscope fit, and has anyone had any experience with this?
Any advice or product suggestions?

Thanks,
Suz

[Kathleen_Mc]

I haven't used the ear peice on the non hearing ear since my orginal surgery, I just placed it in front of my ear for ease of use, I find no probelm taking B/p's this way, I do not listen to breath sounds in my practice, haven't had a problem doing bowel sounds or hearts this way
When I did have the cross hearing aid system I believe I just took the aid out of the functioning ear and put it in my pocket when I used the stethoscope.
Maybe the staff where you get the aids mights have other suggestions.
Kathleen

[arizonajack]

You might consider an "inside the ear" hearing aid and bring the stethoscope with you when you test drive them.

[Nannybee]

Suz, this is a real challenge. I recently got Phonak hearing aids that go behind the ear with the receiver in the canal and cannot use a conventional stethoscope with them in.

So the choice becomes don't wear them to work and not be able to hear patients talking to me or take them out with each patient and risk losing them. Cardionics makes an e scope that can be connected directly to the hearing aids so the sound comes through your hearing aids and can be used without ear pieces at all, but their customer service person tells me that the audiologist needs to create a specific program for stethoscope use to amplify the low frequency sounds more and that heart and lung sounds will sound different. Jack may have the best solution since I have seen different earpieces for use with ITC hearing aids.

I am a provider, so auscultation is a big part of my exam and diagnosis and this has been a real challenge! I see you live near Phila. I'm not far, I'll PM you.

[suz]

Thank you - these are all good suggestions. The audiologist suggested that during the month that I trial my hearing aid that I experiment with using the stethoscope in different ways to see what works. The one thing she strongly recommended against was removing the hearing aid to use the stethoscope. Too much risk of losing it, and she said that research shows that consistently wearing the hearing aid actually helps to maintain hearing.

I am waiting to get the hearing aid because I have no money left in my flexible spending account. In January I will have a new pot of $$ to draw from, and I will be at the audiologists office as soon after the new year as possible. Having some time to plan is good. I am really looking forward to having it - and so is my family!

Mostly I use the stethoscope for taking manual blood pressures. The practice is considering new fetal monitors that have a built in automatic cuff to take blood pressures. That would solve my problem!