How do you guys carry your stuff at Clincal?

[kk83]

We aren't allowed to bring anything to clinicals that we can't really tote around in our scrubs. It's kind of tough w/everything we use though!

I don't bring my car to school (I share w/my husband) - so I have to bring essentials like my cell phone, inhaler, ipod touch (required), scissors, hemostats, penlight, hand sanitizer, pen, notebook, chapstick, and some cough drops as well as a BP cuff.

I have 4 pockets and they're stuffed and totally weigh my pants down! Do any of you have a similar issue? I've heard the clipboards with the storage compartment are good - but we aren't really supposed to bring anything into patient's rooms (or at least we weren't in the nursing home setting).

Help!? :)

[AOX4RN, MSN, RN, NP]

...I have to bring essentials like my cell phone, inhaler, ipod touch (required), scissors, hemostats, penlight, hand sanitizer, pen, notebook, chapstick, and some cough drops as well as a BP cuff.

I have two pockets in my scrub pants, two in the smock, and 5 in the lab jacket. I look like a packrat on some days but in general my steth is around my neck. Penlight and ruler in breast pocket with pens. Inner jacket pocket on the left is "my" stuff (lip gloss/balm, gum/mints, money). Inner jacket pocket on the right is whatever paperwork I'm carrying around for the client/patient I'm not seeing at the moment (so I don't get them mixed up). Outer pocket on the right has my hemostat with tape clipped onto it, with scissors inside. Left outer pocket has a spiral mini-notebook. I rarely use the pants pockets because they pull my pants down and I can't get to it easily.

We go to facilities with BP cuffs and hand sanitizer, so we don't worry about that. I have a clipboard with storage too, but leave that wherever they let us keep our stuff and that becomes "my station".

[ImThatGuy, BSN, RN]

I find that all I need during clinicals is a bottle of Excedrin and a tube of Clorox Wipes. The stethoscope is merely handy. The rest is necessity, lol.

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

I think every nurse needs a hemostat and scissors on them. You never ever know when you are going to need something like that. Maybe it is the EMT/Boy Scout side of my but I never step foot into the hospital without those things. For my notes, I always just took 2 pieces of computer paper and folded them over and stuck them in my left cargo pocket. Eventually I just forget it with most of the stuff but not having a car, i can see where you need most of that stuff.

[withasmilelpn]

Can't you use a notebook ap on your iPod touch instead of paper?

[SkaterGurl]

Can't you use a notebook ap on your iPod touch instead of paper?

I tried that once and found that it isn't "fast" enough during report so I carry a 3x5 card and a retractable pen (after so many ink stains on my whites-sheesh). I carry my iTouch (by med apps are on it so I don't have to bring books), hemostats, scissors, tape, chapstick, and stethoscope. When we were in the nursing home, I WISHED I had brought my bp cuff, as there really weren't enough to go around, but eww, I didn't want to contaminate mine (I use it on my family). There are sinks & soap everywhere so bringing hand sanitizer isn't necessary.

As you progress through your program, you will find your pockets lightening up.

[neongirl]

Hmm - during school I always had a tote bag with clinical papers, lunch/snack(12 hours) and Tabers, plus a sweatshirt, outdoor shoes, and a few dollars. We had a designated area to store our "stuff", but it wasn't a locked room. I never brought anything too valuable - I always had my phone in my tote bag somewhere near the bottom. We were not permitted to have clipboards school rule, not facility.

My pocket "stuff" I kept only what i needed in a zipperd pencil bag, in my clinical tote ( i had a class bag and a clinical bag) - and you have to get creative. Stethoscope - with a roll of tape. hemostat and I switched to a "mini" bandage scissor semester 2, in my pocket. Also semester 1 we came up with a excel sheet with the basics on it for 4 patients, I would use two tape them back to back (or if you have a two sided printer) then just quarter it.

I also carried a 4 color pen and 2 or 3 black pens, I always used ones with a click top and that had a clip, those I clipped to the neck of my shirt and let the pen part hang inside, along with my pen light - (I still do this) After a while I noticed most rooms have white boards - I added a marker and used them if i needed to to write down vitals, next pain med, if they were leaving the floor, I and O, samples needed questions they had for dr. whatever came up that you didn't want to forget. (things staff asked of us - or things you noted in report)

I know where you are coming from - you feel like you need a zillion things, and honestly, you don't..

I took out insurance on my cell phone - and used the providers "back up assistant" just in case - and I put a two hundred dollar limit on my debit card, and I left my credit cards at home - just in case. the few dollars I took to clinical with me - I put in my bra - just in case.

you will figure out what works for you - but make it easy on yourself - less is better and you don't spend half your time digging.

Other things I have seen, - steth holster, a "pocket organizer" that slips into a cargo pocket, and some hang the hemos off their scrub top with a roll of tape

[GOLDIE480]

i ordered a white fanny pack on line that was able to fit all the things you need to use and more, it held cell phone, candy, even a small notepad and guess what even my stethoscope go online to find just google Good luck in clinicals:nurse:

[withasmilelpn]

A quick way to use your Notebook app is to make an assessment template in advance - that you can just quickly fill in. Name, dx, allergies, O2, diet etc. Then copy and paste each time to use for each patient. It really isn't that much slower and you usually don't have very many patients as students. I guess a 3x5 card works too.

[Gurmo]

Those of you that carry drug books too, I don't know how you do it! :)

If you are carrying a touch, then download a drug app.

I had that problem of not enough pockets while I was in school as well. I simply sewed more pockets on my scrubs. Our school scrubs only had a chest pocket and a cargo pant pocket. I added two shirt front pocket and another cargo pant pocket.

Another handy thing is sewing on a strap with a snap attachment. Then you can loop your hemos, scissors, hand sani (in a pouch) through them.

Honestly I need to design scrubs, especially for males.

[CeilingCat, ASN, RN]

I stopped carrying so much crap. Half the things on your list either are available on the floor or I simply don't use often enough to carry with me. Generally all I need is a stethoscope, pen, flash lite, bandage scissors, and a little notepad. Drug books: most hospitals now have online forumularies. To be honest I'd rather go with their resource than a book I chose, on the rare chance the information is different: I want to back up my action with what the hospital's own resource said is correct. Wipes and hand sanitizer have always been available everywhere I visited. I've never had a single cause to use a hemostat, and neither have any of my clinical classmates that I know of. Clipboards are nice, but some places don't want you to use them -- either out of limited storage space, infection control, or other reasons.

[DPSGraduateNurse]

With all the things I carry, I at times, feel like I need a fanny-pack!

[Metody]

Left inner pocket, in an organizer my sister got me: pen, penlight, scissors, credit card, ID, bus pass. Hair pins, too - I slip them through the holes in the accudose envelopes, so I can pin together all of a patient's next meds.

Left outer pocket: patient reports, folded in fours. You write the notes you need on the back of them. a very small, very thin notebook to transcribe anything I want to take home with me. Alcohol wipes, adhesive wipes, a couple of flushes

Right inner pocket: MP3 player, headphones coiled up and banded to the player so there's no wild tangles to deal with. Chapstick.

Right outer pocket: Stethoscope...I used to keep it around my neck, until I leaned forward and it cracked a lady in the face. Since you have to take a BP cuff, you could keep it there and wear the steth around your neck.

You should probably keep your inhaler in your coat pocket. I don't know why you need the hand santizer, since there should be a sink, soap, and a hand sanitizer in each patient's room, plus more in the halls. Even if every nurse on the floor needs sanitizer, it takes all of two seconds to use the dispensors. If you need cough drops, keep just one in your pocket at a time, and leave the rest in your coat.

On all the floors I've been on, there is either a BP cuff in the pts. room, or you use a dynamap. My school told us to not bring our own cuffs, since they couldn't be sure of calibration.

I can't believe they make you carry around a BP cuff! At least stethoscopes, you can clean with clorox wipes. Nothing ever gets that tough fabric of a cuff clean.

Ick, ick, ick, ick.