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Use a two-sided stethoscope.

Accurate blood pressures are taken using the bell not the diaphragm. As you have probably learned at some point in your career, the function of the bell and the diaphragm are different. The bell is better at picking up low-pitch sounds; whereas the diaphragm is better at picking up high-pitch sounds. Therefore they're going to have two different functions.

The bell is better for assessing a patient's blood pressure. If your patient's blood pressure is very easy to hear then you'll do fine with a diaphragm; but if you're having difficulty flip it over and try the bell - it's better at picking up the low pitches that you hear when a patient has an abnormal blood pressure. Also use the bell when you're listening to a patient's lung sounds or a patient's bowel sounds. Both lung sounds and bowel sounds can be high in pitch or they can be low in pitch. You could get additional information by using the bell on those patients.

Use all the capabilities you have and that way you'll have the best assessments on your patient. You'll pick up complications and problems early and your patient won't crash. You may even avoid having to resuscitate that patient later in the day.

An article from www.Ed4Nurses.com