Looking to buy lab supplies to practice at home

[The Princess Bride]

:) Hi, I was wondering if anyone might know where I could buy lab equipment(foley insertion kit, IV tubes and empty IV solution bags, sterile dressing change kits etc..). I really need to practice for competencies in May. A few friends and I want to buy supplies so we could make our own little lab and practice but when we tried to order we were told we needed a prescription. Is there any way to buy practice supplies without an order? Thanks

[caliotter3]

You need a prescription for these things. Most people who want to do what you are talking about "borrow" supplies from work without getting caught. I would just wait and practice at school.

[Hope2BaRN]

Check around at other colleges (e.g. community). At my school we have to buy a nurse's pack for $90.00. It contains evertything including a foley, all the stuff for the dressing changes, etc.

[Hope2BaRN]

By the way anyone can buy these kit's they don't ask for id or anything.

[jillebean]

I also had to purchase a kit from school. $102 for everything I needed to practice, and it came in a duffle bag. I just assumed every school did this!

[Peliroja62]

The problem is they don't give you enough supplies to practice enough. I ran out of the ampules (sp) and not can't practice that skill! soooo frustrating!

[Nurse Kyles, BSN, RN]

At my program we get a bag of supplies at the beginning of the semester. This bag is our "check off supplies" for when we do a check off with instructor. There is one of everything that we need. We did not have to purchase this separately, rather it was included in our fees for the semester.

Do you have a practice skills lab? We have a lab that is open from 8-6 every day. We can go in there whenever we want to practice skills. We just tell the RN who runs the lab what skill we are doing and what supplies we need. She then provides us with supplies, but we do try to reuse supplies as much as possible. There are certain supplies that they do not include in our skills supply bag for safety reasons such as needles, iv catheters etc. Part of your education is practicing these skills. IMO your school should provide you with the practice supplies.

[AgentBeast, BSN, RN]

http://www.pocketnurse.com

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

You may want o try central supply..sometimes they have expired products they can give you........just tell them why you need them

[strawberryluv, BSN, RN]

I discovered an awesome site called

Bound Tree Medical

It is a wonderful site for buying just about any medical supply except you can't buy normal saline and other HCP Rx items.

[ChipNurse]

Just use your school lab...it's free (well not really, you pay for it in your tuition), so you might as well take advantage of it.