Squat down so your eyes are level with the abdomen, then listen before you press. Sort inspection findings into expected, report and stop-now. Build a bowel-sound reading from what you heard, how long you listened and the clinical context — the bench will hold you to the five-minute rule. Then find the bell sites, name the vascular sounds, and rewrite a vague note.
Expected, report, or stop now
Stand at the patient’s right, then squat until your eyes are level with the abdomen — a flat contour and a distended one look identical from above. Classify each finding.
You see
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Correct
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Answered
14
Total
Read the bowel sounds
Diaphragm, warmed, light pressure. Start in the right lower quadrant where the ileocecal valve reliably makes sound, then move clockwise.
Routine: 15 to 30 seconds in each quadrant. Absent: 5 full minutes in one spot.
Switch to the bell
Vascular sounds are lower pitched than bowel sounds, so the bell finds what the diaphragm misses. Choose a site.
Name the sound
Not everything you hear over the abdomen is a bowel sound. Read the description and name it.
You hear
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Correct
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Answered
7
Total
Rewrite the note
Select every element that must be added to make the note defensible, then check.