Learning auscultation: not for dummies

This American paper is based on a reasonable premise that paramedics are required to be adept at auscultation practices as they are first on scene at emergencies, and also that the skill of auscultation is often poorly taught. Although the article refers to the inadequacies of auscultation competence in physicians and extrapolates this point to paramedics, similar concerns have already been raised about student paramedic practice (Williams et al, 2009).

The article critiques the amount of discrete, auscultation-specific education that student paramedics receive and the limited approaches that are used—albeit in just one educational programme. It does seem reasonable to assume that these issues are transferable to other paramedic education courses, including those in this country, although the length of time for the programme in question—42 weeks (i.e. one academic year)—is limited compared to most contemporary UK courses.

The paper reports on the introduction of a modified stethoscope—the ‘Ventriloscope’—which contains a remote-controllable library of pre-recorded MP3 formatted sounds (heart, lung, abdominal and vascular) which clinicians might expect to find in patient examinations. A variety of abnormal auscultatory findings can be sent wirelessly to the device from an FM transmitter held by a faculty member for the student to hear and interpret while examining otherwise healthy patients/volunteers. As such, it is a device to enhance simulation-based learning.