Salomé Voegelin and Mark Peter Wright recently visited Dr Debbie Thackray, one of our project partners in Health Sciences at the University of Southampton. Debbie is a lecturer in Physiotherapy and specializes in auscultation (listening to the body via stethoscope) and simulation-based learning. We discussed a range of fascinating topics that included how students are taught to listen to real and simulated bodies; what they might be listening for and how the stethoscope functions as mediator of sonic knowledge that can encourage diagnostic and evaluative learning. We also talked about the vast vocabulary used in medicine for describing lung sounds and how listening may have ‘depth’ in the context of lung diagnosis. Similar to how one identifies pain through touch and pressure, listening to lung and respiratory problems also has a stratification of knowledge within the heard severity of a crackle or wheeze. These discussions are informing our listening protocols and will contribute to our podcast series currently under production.
