- Select a quiet place to use your stethoscope to ensure that the body sounds you want to hear will not be overpowered by background noises.
- Position your patient to listen to the heart, abdomen, lungs and bowel sounds. It may sound different depending on the patient’s position: i.e., sitting, standing, lying on one’s side, etc.
- Decide whether to use the diaphragm or bell where the diaphragm, or flat side of the drum, is better for hearing medium- or high-pitched sounds and the bell, or round side of the drum, is better for hearing low-pitched sounds.
- Have your patient lift up clothing to expose skin and keep the stethoscope still to avoid any rustling sounds or sound from fabric friction.
- Check the earpiece tension on your stethoscope and readjust them if it is too loose or tight.
- Hold the diaphragm over the patient’s heart on the left upper part of the chest where the 4th to 6th ribs meet, almost directly under the breast.
- Listen to the heart for a full minute. Ask the patient to relax and breathe normally. You should hear the normal sounds of the human heart, which sound like “lub-dub.” Systolic is the “lub” sound and diastolic is the “dub” sound.
- Count the number of heartbeats you hear in a minute.
- Listen for abnormal heart sounds. Anything that does not sound like lub-dub may be considered abnormal and your patient may need further evaluation by a doctor.
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