It’s a given. I spend a few minutes with a patient, taking his or her history, formulating a possible diagnosis in my mind, and I then proceed to examine the patient.
Though s/he may have been reticent in providing details of his/her current illness, the patient SUDDENLY becomes positively garrulous the minute I place my stethoscope on his or her body.
Have you ever worn earplugs? They work very well at blocking out any ambient noise. Including the spoken word. When I am wearing a stethoscope, and have the plugs in my ears while listening to the heart or lungs or abdomen, of a patient with my stethoscope, I can hear nothing —except the heart, or lungs or abdominal sounds of that patient. They also amplify certain sounds.
Most particularly, they amplify any noise (like one’s voice…) that is listened to on the neck of a patient. REALLY amplify. Kind of like yelling into a megaphone aimed directly into the ear of the listener. So, I apologize for my upcoming rant….but here it is:
SHUT UP!!!! (when the doctor is listening to you with his or her stethoscope….)
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