Med school isn't really as expensive a business as people say and I found that with a decent part time job it wasn't even much of a stress to buy any piece of equipment or textbook I've wanted. That being said there's a lot of choice out there as to what equipment to get, and paying a bit more can get you some nicer toys. Here's what I have (bought, was given, otherwise acquired etc):
Stethoscopes
Littman Cardio III: The workhorse of my stethoscope range it's comfortable to use, hardy, has never failed me and sounds as clear as any steth I've tried.
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Littman Classic II SE: Nice enough, but I find the flatter chest piece far more uncomfortable to grasp than the cardio, so this end to be my backup.
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Doctor's Brand Stethoscope: It as $15, I bought it for a lab coat + steth pubcrawl so I wouldn't have to take my expensive one. It's painful to use the earpieces are so hard and there is so much tension on the headpiece, acoustics are near non existent and the tube actually kinks. But hey at $15, I can certainly afford to lose or break it. This is my only steth I'll wear in a state of non-sobriety.
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Sphygmomanometer
Not sure of the brand, I bought it from the co-op, $35, great investment, I practiced with this non stop for a couple of months and now it's second nature
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Tuning Fork
Prestige Medical Tuning fork, with weights I got 2 of these, 128 Hz for sensory exam testing vibration perception, and 256hz for air bone conduction testing. They have the funny discs of metal at the end so they hold vibration longer, and they work wonderfully, the difference with weights is so noticeable, the vibration is so much stronger stronger and lasts much longer (this sounds like an ad for viagra). I would never go back to one without weights after this.
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Tendon Hammer
Prestige Medical Queen Square Hammer. I got a queen square style because I found the longer handle useful, but they all work, and they're all very cheap.
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Penlight
It's a torch the size of a pen.
Ophthalmoscope
Welch-Allyn 2.5v Pocket Ophthalmoscope (Purchased as part of a diagnostic kit). Absolutely wonderful, ophthalmoscopes are expensive so I tried a few before settling on this one, most of the other brands I tried were cheaper but I found this one much easier to use, the controls are at the level I grip the ophthalmoscope naturally anyway so it's less clumsy to focus, it's large enough to use but small enough to throw in my bag where space is at a premium, it runs on AA's which is convenient and I find that locating vessels is so much easier with this than with the other brands I tried. I cannot recommend this particularly goodie highly enough.
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Otoscope
Welch-Allyn 2.5v Pocket Otoscope Haven't used it yet just bought it with my ophthalmoscope because that's the only way the latter was available.
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Right now no matter what I do in life it better involve an ophthalmoscope, fortunately there's a pretty big range of specialties there, ophthalmology, nephrology, neurology, general practice, emergency, paediatrics, general medicine... Did I miss any anyone?
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