What is the best stethoscope for an emergency medical technician?

You really do not need to blow your money a a expensive one for school and such your trying to hear basic lung sounds not diagnose a heart murmur. When you get hired you company will supply them for you anyways. Just get a basic one that will last you awhile and save your money for extra things like quick look guide books or a good pair of shoes.

Well depends on what your pockets can afford!!  If you are prone to lose it buy a cheap one.  If you are the kind to be able to keep one around long, buy a good stethoscope.  No name brand comes to mind.  Just that the money money you spend, the more frills you get.

to be honest- any cheap one. the quality of those $200 "cardiology" stethoscopes aren't that much better than those dirt-cheap ones you see all over the place at the hospitals. especially in the case of an EMT where you're going to have a lot of "extra" noises causing interference (like that blaring siren). it's not like you're going to try to detect the S1 and S2 heart sounds while in the middle of evacuating a trauma victim- you're just listening to make sure they're breathing and they've got a heart beat, and any cheap stethescope will do the job.

In my 25 years as a Paramedic, I have had every "good" stethoscope I ever bought become "misplaced".  Buy yourself a twin tube Sprague Rapport ($30.00 max) in some horrible color no one would want, and write your name on it.  It'll work about as well as an expensive one, and maybe no one will steal it.

I'm a nurse and an EMT, and I would highly recommend a littmann cardiology stethescope. No matter what anyone says, you do need to hear what's going on with your patient, and it can be difficult to hear when riding on a rig! It's made an unbelievable difference for me... Invest the money, but do put your name on it and don't let it out of your sight.