I gave one a few years ago to a good friend. We somehow talked about doctor visits quite often and she always told me that she is so nervous when her bp is taken or her heart is listened to. But she also seemed to be interested in heart stuff. So I decides to buy a steth for her (not too expensive)
I was really nervous as I handed her the package. She unwrapped it and took the steth out of it's box. She turned it over in her hands and looked at it closely and then she packed it away. So I was a little disappointed. A little later I took our empty cups and brought them into the kitchen. As I came back my heart started pounding immediately. She was sitting on my bed with the stethoscope in her ears!!! Telling me, that she was waiting for me.
I sit down on the bed nervously and looked at her with the stethoscope in her ears. She pulled down the neckline of my shirt and placed the disc of the stethoscope on my chest close to the aortic valve. I felt my heart pounding strong. She moved the disc a few times and placed the steth back on the bed. Then she took my wrist and counted my pulse!
As she was done she also took my pulse at my neck and then she asked me to get my steth and bp cuff and teach her how to take a bp. So I took her bp first to show her and then she placed the cuff around my arm and I explained her what to listen for and how to inflate the cuff.
Then she wanted me to listen to her heart, so I took my sttehoscope and got the chance to listen to her heartbeat! It was so cool, I looked in her eyes while listening to her heart. It was racing at the beginning but after a while she relaxed a bit and her heart got slower. I listened for a long while and then took her pulse as well. After that she took my stethoscope and started to listen to my heart again. She wanted to compare the sound of the steths. This took a while and then it was all over, unfortunately.
So I can really recommend to give stethocopes as gifts for christmas, birthday or whatever 😃