Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Our journals
    • Clinical Medicine
    • Future Healthcare Journal
  • Subject collections
  • About the RCP
  • Contact us

Clinical Medicine Journal

  • ClinMed Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Ahead of print
    • Archive
  • Author guidance
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit online
  • About ClinMed
    • Scope
    • Editorial board
    • Policies
    • Information for reviewers
    • Advertising

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
RCP Journals
Home
  • Log in
  • Home
  • Our journals
    • Clinical Medicine
    • Future Healthcare Journal
  • Subject collections
  • About the RCP
  • Contact us
Advanced

Clinical Medicine Journal

clinmedicine Logo
  • ClinMed Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Ahead of print
    • Archive
  • Author guidance
    • Instructions for authors
    • Submit online
  • About ClinMed
    • Scope
    • Editorial board
    • Policies
    • Information for reviewers
    • Advertising

Stop auscultating and listen carefully instead: the new era of respiratory medicine

George Tsaknis
Download PDF
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.Let.21.1.1
Clin Med January 2021
George Tsaknis
Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Kettering, UK
Roles: Consultant in respiratory medicine and lung cancer lead
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
Loading

Editor – I still vividly remember the first second that I got my hands on my first-ever shiny stethoscope back in medical school. That day, I recall auscultating tirelessly every single patient in the premises – respiratory or not! It was that art and skill combined that drew me into respiratory medicine in the first place.

Fast-forward to 20 years later, I'm sitting in my office after finishing another ward round on the COVID-19 ward, during which (once again) I did not auscultate at all. My stethoscope has been left in the drawer since the first ‘peak’ of the pandemic, no longer decorating my neck, losing even the last of its recent uses; indicating who in the hospital premises knows how to auscultate a chest properly (hopefully). Furthermore, after completing >350 virtual consultations, so far, for outpatient respiratory follow-ups and new referrals, I still haven't used it. The lack of direct patient contact has bothered me the most, as this magic skill and art of auscultation rapidly fades away, like the bronze finish on my stethoscope, unused, still in the drawer, banned by the coronavirus.

However, all is not lost. We still have our ears, even without our trusted ‘tubing and bell’ attached to them, which, for a respiratory consultant, has been a ‘mandatory artificial appendage’ for so many years. I now rely on listening carefully to what my patients tell me about their symptoms and concerns, concentrating more on their needs, rather than on my own former need to auscultate before offering my pearls of wisdom. It has not hindered any of my investigations or treatment plans, and none of the patients so far has expressed any concerns about the ‘lack of auscultation’; however, you can find plenty of complaints around NHS trusts about ‘lack of listening’.

I am not sure when (or if) I will actually use my stethoscope again, as for the rest of my clinical encounters, I rely on real-time imaging (ultrasound) as well. I don't know if the pandemic will signal the end of the stethoscope, however, I certainly hope it will signal a new beginning, with a new breed of doctors who listen, even though they don't have a stethoscope around their necks. This is, and always have been, the fundamental art of medicine itself. I guess this is one of the things I've relearned during the pandemic.

  • © Royal College of Physicians 2021. All rights reserved.
Back to top
Previous articleNext article

Article Tools

Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
Stop auscultating and listen carefully instead: the new era of respiratory medicine
George Tsaknis
Clinical Medicine Jan 2021, 21 (1) e116; DOI: 10.7861/clinmed.Let.21.1.1

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Stop auscultating and listen carefully instead: the new era of respiratory medicine
George Tsaknis
Clinical Medicine Jan 2021, 21 (1) e116; DOI: 10.7861/clinmed.Let.21.1.1
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Info & Metrics

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Cardiac investigations after ischaemic stroke
  • Bias in the COVID-19 era
Show more Letters to the editor

Similar Articles

Navigate this Journal

  • Journal Home
  • Current Issue
  • Ahead of Print
  • Archive

Related Links

  • ClinMed - Home
  • FHJ - Home
clinmedicine Footer Logo
  • Home
  • Journals
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
HighWire Press, Inc.

Follow Us:

  • Follow HighWire Origins on Twitter
  • Visit HighWire Origins on Facebook

Copyright © 2021 by the Royal College of Physicians