a rhetorical question

V

Veneficus

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When I was in EMT class, many years back, we were taught how to listen to heart tones.

The last few years, I noticed this skill has been dropped.

Most recently I am engaged in a debate in another thread over the appropriateness of this being performed by EMTs.

But I have a question.

If you listen to lung sounds, what is so different about heart sounds that makes them so intimidating?
 
akflightmedic

akflightmedic

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I would answer but a rhetorical question by definition needs no answer.
 
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Veneficus

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That was my point...
 
mycrofft

mycrofft

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Rhetorically answering

Heart sounds are more subtle and thus more of an "art", while ling sounds useful to basic level field folks (paramedics and EMT-B's) are easier, to a certain point, and thus more of a science. It is harder to teach art than science and more talent is involved.
 
JPINFV

JPINFV

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Isn't lung sounds now watered down to the point of being "normal" or "abnormal?"
 
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Veneficus

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usafmedic45

usafmedic45

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JPINFV

JPINFV

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Veneficus said:
Are you trying to piss me off?
Click to expand...


If I really wanted to piss you off I would have mentioned that I got into an argument about a month ago with a professor who didn't believe that "rales" and "crackles" were the same thing.
 
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Veneficus

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abckidsmom said:
It's a true. I am precepting a new EMT-B right now, and she absolutely did not have the vocabulary to describe the lung sounds she heard.
Click to expand...

la la la la not listening :)
 
usafmedic45

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firetender

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We are, in U.S. medicine anyway, consistently moving away from the human art and depending more and more on machines to do our work.

I don't think that lessens the mistakes. It just gives us something else to blame while minimizing the healing effects of human interaction.
 
Brandon O

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Lung sounds are also more likely to be relevant to the type of field treatment and decision-making we usually make in the field, especially for BLS.
 
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Veneficus

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Brandon Oto said:
Lung sounds are also more likely to be relevant to the type of field treatment and decision-making we usually make in the field, especially for BLS.
Click to expand...

you don't think an apical pulse is?
 
Brandon O

Brandon O

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I love me a good apical, but I wouldn't exactly call it advanced heart sounds.
 
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Veneficus

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Brandon Oto said:
I love me a good apical, but I wouldn't exactly call it advanced heart sounds.
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I didn't suggest advanced heart sounds,

but I don't think: "That sounds abnormal" is requiring too much.

For lungs I expect better.

But if you could skillfully listen to heart sounds, wouldn't that make you a very skilled (and therefore respected and valuable) EMT?
 
Brandon O

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Hey, you'll never hear me say that EMT's shouldn't be improving their clinical assessments. But on the balance of things it's a difficult skill with limited opportunity to use it (really need a quiet space and some time), with not a great deal of probabilty to influence our care. There are other things I'd want someone working on first.

Edit: also somewhat hard to find educational resources on this.
 
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