What it means
One of the four physical assessment skills, with inspection, palpationpal-PAY-shunExamining the body by touching and pressing with the hands and fingers.Full entry and percussion. The nurse listens to the heart, lungs, bowel and blood vessels. The flat diaphragm of the stethoscope picks up high-pitched sounds such as breath sounds, bowel sounds and normal heart sounds; the cup-shaped bell picks up low-pitched sounds such as some murmurs.
For the nurse
Place the stethoscope on bare skin, not over a gown. When examining the abdomen, listen before you press or tap, because touching the belly can change the bowel sounds. Listen for a full minute when counting an apical pulse.
In a chart
"Lungs auscultated: fine crackles in both bases."
At a glance
| Spanish | auscultación |
|---|---|
| Also written | auscultate, auscultated, auscultating, auscultates |
Related terms
assess
To gather information about a client by looking, listening, asking, measuring and examining.
heart rate
How many times the heart beats per minute.
wheezing
A high-pitched, whistling sound made as air moves through narrowed airways.
palpation
Examining the body by touching and pressing with the hands and fingers.