Final answer:
During auscultation, a nurse listens for the rhythm, frequency, intensity, and duration of the heart sounds' 'lub' and 'dub.' Anomalies may indicate underlying conditions, and murmurs are graded on severity. Phonocardiograms can record these heart sounds for further analysis.
Step-by-step explanation:
When a nurse is auscultating the heart sounds, the nurse listens for several key qualities of the sounds heard via auscultation with a stethoscope. These sounds typically include the 'lub' sound of the closing of the atrioventricular valves and the 'dub' of the semilunar valves. The nurse would note the rhythm, frequency, intensity, and duration of these sounds. Anomalies such as heart murmurs or additional heart sounds like S3 or S4 may indicate underlying conditions such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or congestive heart failure. Additionally, heart murmurs are graded on a scale from 1 to 6 to assess their severity.
Phonocardiograms or auscultograms can be used to record heart sounds if abnormal noises are detected, and further diagnostic tests such as echocardiograms may be conducted to investigate potential heart pathologies. When listening, cardiologists might describe a sequence of heart sounds as resembling a 'Kentucky gallop' or 'Tennessee gallop' depending on whether they include S3 or S4 in addition to the normal S1 and S2 sounds.