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Important Lung Sounds Made Easy: A Practical Guide (With Full Audio)

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Knowing how to correctly identify adventitious breath sounds can tell you, and the other members of the care team, a lot about a patient’s condition.

What's included in this resource?

  • CPDTime.
    10m of CPD
  • Article
  • 1 Video
  • 3 Assessment Questions
  • References

What is this article about?

From general practice to the intensive care unit, listening to lung sounds can tell you a great deal about a patient and their relative health. However, knowing the difference between rales, a crackle and a wheeze is sometimes still a confusing proposition for many health professionals, especially new graduates.

Contents

Test Your Knowledge

  • 3 Assessment Questions

Further Learning

  • References

Document and reflect on your learning

  • CPDTime.
    10m of CPD

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Ausmed
Editorial Team
Ausmed’s editorial team is committed to providing high-quality, well-researched and reputable education to our users, free of any commercial bias or conflict of interest. All education produced by Ausmed is developed in consultation with healthcare professionals and undergoes a rigorous review process to ensure the relevancy of all healthcare information and updates to changes in practice. If you have identified an issue with the education offered by Ausmed or wish to submit feedback to Ausmed's editorial team, please email ausmed@ausmed.com.au with your concerns.
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Lynda Lampert
Lynda is a registered nurse with three years experience on a busy surgical floor in a city hospital. She graduated with an Associates degree in Nursing from Mercyhurst College Northeast in 2007 and lives in Erie, Pennsylvania in the United States. In her work, she took care of patients post operatively from open heart surgery, immediately post-operatively from gastric bypass, gastric banding surgery and post abdominal surgery. She also dealt with patient populations that experienced active chest pain, congestive heart failure, end stage renal disease, uncontrolled diabetes and a variety of other chronic, mental and surgical conditions.
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What do others think?

1709 reviews by Ausmed Learners
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NS
Nacole Strobel
18 Jun 2020
Easy to understand, informative.
SD
Sonia daniels
05 Apr 2020
Easily understood Variable sounds and explanation of the types of respiratory sounds
CP
Charein Price
26 Apr 2023
Good to hear the classic breath sounds again
MK
Milan kc
25 Mar 2022
Short and simple but informative.
TE
Tamara Erskine
20 Aug 2020
I found this very informative
LE
Lisa Evans
12 Jul 2021
Easy to follow and understand
Portrait of Jenny Maclean
Jenny Maclean
09 Apr 2020
I intend to listen to those sounds regularly so I can better assess my patients. It is an excellent learning tool
DF
DIANNA FORNASIER
02 Oct 2020
Great resource
Portrait of Mary Charlene Palaypayon-Reyes
Mary Palaypayon-Reyes
10 Jul 2021
Learning is best with hearing! Thanks for attaching sample lung sounds :)
GM
Grace Muhazim
14 Sep 2022
Registered Nurse
Informative
4.6 / 5
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