Supplies a new grad ER Nurse should carry

[Belle2013]

I start in the ER next week. What are some items you can suggest that are important to carry with you (especially as a new grad)? So far I'm thinking:

-A small notepad to carry in my pocket and write things down I want to look up once I get home

-a sharpie that I can attach to my badge

-trauma shears

-click pens with different colors

-lock for my locker

-extra pair of scrubs for my locker

What else?

Thanks!

[green34]

Trauma shears. Stethoscope. A black pen. Pediatric vital signs card, lab values, and the pregnancy due date calculator card. Flushes (since we cannot stock them on the IV trays).

I sometimes end up with extra needles and syringes in my pocket if I have to do several blood draws close together. Used to carry coban around but not anymore.

I don't bother with the full change. Maybe underwear and socks, but hospitals usually will give you a set of hospital scrubs if you get bodily fluids or exposed to bugs.

Everything I carry besides the stethoscope (with a stethoscope watch) and trauma shears is provided by the hospital.

[lakerfantj]

I have a thing I call my murse purse. Like a flat fanny pack with lots of pockets. I get teased by people that don't carry much but I get asked for things constantly from it. Keep red and black pen. Alcohol wipes. 2x2s. Iv caps and luere adapters. Bandaids. Tegraderm. Note pad. Sharpe. Tytek piranha shears. Couple cheater cards. Peds stethescope. Temporal thermometer. Led light. Has a loop for tapes. Size nine sterile gloves cause they are hard to find and important when you need them. Sounds full but can't tell you how much I use it. Have aviator scrubs with lots of pockets for my flushes and quick snacks. Put extra gloves in my scrub pockets too. Watch is basic but easy to clean. Lots of med apps on my phone. Keen shoes with expensive insole. Good coffee mug.

[mcknis]

Stethoscope, tape, pens (usually lose one or give one to "unclean" patients to keep), trauma shears, Vocera (required, or else it wouldn't be around), ammonia inhalant taped to back of badge.

Everything else is in the cabinets in the pt rooms. Do have some hemostats, tweezers and bandage and iris scissors in a backpack in the locker room. Other than that, nothing else is needed.

[nursed40]

Make sure you get scrub bottoms that either have cargo pockets to carry more things like flushes. You could also consider getting a stylish fanny pack and keep things you use often.

[Chris Arevalo]

On 6/22/2013 at 1:03 AM, JMart83 said:

I also made myself a small, laminated, easy to read reference "book" of the hospital's standardized procedures for ED clinical conditions that I can check (and double and triple check) in case things get muddy that fits right in my pocket. It's basically the hospital's algorithms for clinical conditions in note form so I can get in the groove of knowing what to anticipate in terms of diagnostics, labs, complaint-specific interventions, etc.

Any chance you could share this?

[AutoRotate, MSN, RN]

1. Stethoscope (cheap one from an open crash cart)

2. Shears (free from vendor)

3. One black ballpoint pen 

Everything else is just flair.