Items You Carry Daily in the Hospital

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As a student nurse on clinicals or a nurse working in a hospital or nursing home, what items do you carry on your person daily? and what would you recommend to a student nurse on clinicals to carry with them?

Specializes in critical care, PACU.
And as far as calculator, I just google my math, haha.

ooh and I accidentally came across one day that the monitors also have a calculator if you just keep clicking next I think. I filed it away to use in a jam.

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Specializes in Ha! I am gaining experience everyday!.

I have a little black bag that I can stuff with scissors, pens, extra various kinds of tape, bandaids, hemostats, etc. What I keep on me at all times during shift is two pens, NS flushes, scissors, tape, and small hemostats. These come in handy!

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Specializes in ICU.

In my pockets: multiple pens, red & black; penlight, scissors, hemostats, measurement guide (for wounds), alcohol wipes.

On my ID badge: mini-sharpie. Love my sharpie marker for labeling lines and dressings, love the minis that clip onto my badge - I wasted so much time digging my sharpie out of all the other stuff in my pocket.

For those of you that want a watch but hate the idea of it getting wet or germy on your wrist: get a nurses' watch. It's a watch that is upside down on the end of a very short chain or strap. You clip/pin it to your scrub top, and because it's upside down, it's easy to read when you look down at it. Would love to find one with glow-in-the-dark hash marks for those night shifts.

:paw:

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ooh and I accidentally came across one day that the monitors also have a calculator if you just keep clicking next I think. I filed it away to use in a jam.

They do?! Oh wow, I'll have to check our monitors next time, thanks for the heads up!!

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Specializes in CCU,ICU,ER retired.

Tape,scissors,hempstats,alcohol pads,calipers,3 pens,tictacs,small bottle of lotion,about 5 bucks in change and one dollar bills,post-it notes. stethescope on my neck.

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I just google my math, haha.

I would have never thought of doing that! Haha. Good one! :)

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Specializes in ER, progressive care.

As a student I always take a ton of stuff with me during clinical :)

- stethoscope

- penlight

- bandage scissors

- some alcohol swabs

- pens (at least 3)

- RNotes (I love this because it fits in my pocket!)

- hemostat + tape...I will put the roll of tape on the hemostat and then clip it to my uniform. Frees up my pockets this way.

- a NS flush - you never know!

- watch

- I also carry around my storage clipboard - it has a calculator on it that comes in handy for dosage calculations and it opens up to carry papers and other junk inside.

In my clinical bag I carry all of the above + folder with papers that I will need for the day + extra pens and alcohol swabs, bottle of hand sanitizer, some hand lotion, some snacks (like granola bars, etc), gum, some money (something small like $5...I don't bring a lot of cash in the hospital or any cards!) and my lunch.

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Specializes in Peds, PACU, ICU, ER, OB, MED-Surg,.

I have alot of stuff in my bag at the desk but in my pockets... alcohol pads, chloraprep (cvl use), pen, have a penlight that is hooked to my badge. I do my assessments and leave my stethoscope at the desk have not had a cracked tubing and they are going on 14 years.

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Specializes in CVICU, telemetry.

I keep it simple, and the number of things I carry around while on the floor has dwindled since I was a student.

Since I work in an ICU, most of the supplies are (in theory!) supposed to be stored in the pt room, my scrub pocket invariably contains:

-Black ink pen

-black sharpie

-my nurse "brain" (report sheet)

-sometimes alcohol swabs and flushes

-rarely, I'll clip my hemostats to the hem of my scrub tops

I use my stethoscope, but tend not to wear it around my neck after I'm done with my assessments-it gets caught in the many, many lines connected to the patient. Same with the hemostats, hence, the reason I rarely have them.

When I worked tele and we had to measure our rhythm strips, I used to keep a pair of calipers in my pocket.

I store a set of extra scrubs and some toiletries in my locker, and some tylenol.

Otherwise, just a water bottle and a small snack kept at the nurse's station. You'll learn most nurses "eat on the run" a lot, and I get cranky if I get hypoglycemic.

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