Quoted:
I take one before we roll, anything else I just palp.
Our rigs are really bad with the noise. Its like being in a wind tunnel.
Again we keep the cheapo ones on the rigs, and you can hear anything.
I have been yelled at for palping the BPs, and I explained that we have cheap scopes and it is inaudible in our rigs.
My boss told me to buy one of those really good expensive scopes. My response: I make less than $10 an hour, there is no way in HELL I am going to spend MY money on something work related.
If they would reimburse me for it Id be happy to get one, but till then they are SOL and Im gonna keep having to Palp.
People in all kinds of careers invest money so they can do their jobs. Some of us are willing to put the investment in for two reasons: One, we don't like sharing earwax. Two, we like to do our jobs well. I don't feel like I've done the best job possible if I'm only palping a BP. That is an absolute LAST resort, and I'd smack any of my students upside the head if they did it on a regular basis. You can miss all sorts of shit by palping BPs. (I bought mine when I was making less than $10/hour too, btw)
To the OP, it's less than $100 for a decent Littmann. If you don't want to put that much into it, it's only $30 or so for a Sprague. They last for years and years. It's worth the investment.