Published Apr 12, 2018
Nurse-please, BSN
49 Posts
Hey guys
transitioning from the NICU to ER and wondering what supplies I should get to carry on my person. Scissors, tape, watch etc.,
in the NICU I literally carry one pen. Lol
nursephillyphil, BSN, RN
325 Posts
leatherman raptor shears, pens, a good watch (i use my apple watch or g-shock), and danskos or something similar.
psu_213, BSN, RN
3,878 Posts
What I would do--take a pair of hemostats, put them "through" the center of a roll of tape. Attach the hemostats to my scrub top. Use the roll of tape as a holster for my trauma shears.
CraigB-RN, MSN, RN
1,224 Posts
Not much. A pen, a watch and a cheap pair of trauma shears (so you don't care if they disappear). And your ears of course.
Anything more than that will depend on where you work and whats available.
STEMIRN, BSN, RN
9 Posts
Trauma shears, hemostats, stethoscope, pen light, pens, small pad of paper (I take blank computer paper and fold it up and put it in my pocket, so I can make quick notes when getting turn over from EMS. You will see a lot of nurses use a paper towel to jot down info quickly). I use to tape an ammonia inhalant to my badge, but the ED I work in now has the ammonia inhalant's in the pyxis. I would also not recommend using a lanyard for your name badge. A co-worker of mine, has had a pt attempt to choke him, by grabbing the lanyard and pulling back as he walked away. Hope this helps :)
canoehead, BSN, RN
6,901 Posts
A calculator, pens, tape, scissors, penlight and change for a coffee. I also keep a few O2 tubing connectors so I can add an extension tube without making an extra trip.
I use the cheap kids scissors you buy at Sobeys, blunt tip so they don't make holes in your scrubs, and not expensive to replace if they get lost or bloody.
chare
4,324 Posts
Not much. A pen, a watch and a cheap pair of trauma shears (so you don't care if they disappear). And your ears of course.Anything more than that will depend on where you work and whats available.
This, and a good penlight.
PeakRN
547 Posts
Depends on the setup of the ED but carry as little as possible. For example I don't carry a penlight because we have otoscopes and opthalmoscopes in every room. If I need to write something down and didn't grab a paper I can just write on a paper towel. We keep alcohol wipes in the rooms so I don't carry those. We safety check our rooms at the beginning of every shift so I don't carry oxygen trees or any of that. I don't carry a watch because we have clocks in all of our rooms with a second hands.
I carry my trauma shears, pen, sharpie, keys (for our restraints, psych rooms, and code elevator), reference cards for emergent meds/trauma scoring/NRP resuscitation (the things that I know I tend to forget when the pressure mounts), work phone, personal phone (I have our field protocols on it), and stethoscope.
Good equipment does not need to be expensive, and most should be provided by the ED. We even supply standard 7.25 inch trauma shears and have collections of stethoscopes if people need them (and the surgeons don't ask us for ours), we buy pens and sharpies by the case for staff.
boddagettaflyer
1 Post
1) Trauma shears. Caveat: DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON RAPTORS. Yes, they will make you look like the badass ED RN you are. But they will get lost/permanently borrowed and then you're out $70. (LOST RAPTORS is a recurring post on our ED's Facebook group.) I have a couple pairs of $8 black trauma shears from Amazon in my locker that also look badass, but if they walk off, I'm not sad or angry at my coworkers.
2) A good, but inexpensive watch that you only wear to work. It seems like 2/3rds of my department wears Apple Watches, which kind of boggles the mind. I have an Apple Watch, but it goes nowhere near the ED. Occasionally, I get blood on my watch. Or a patient sneezes/poops/pees/vomits on me. I don't want my nice $400 watch to get someone me else's body fluids on it. Timex Ironman it is.
3) A box of Sharpies kept in your locker/bag. You will lose them.
4) A box of non-gel pens. Our lab has refused samples that were time-stamped with a gel pen.
5) Your ears.
Guest219794
2,453 Posts
Shears and stethoscope here.
I rarely need a pen, and consider pen ownership to be fluid. Wondering where your pen went? I probably stole it.
My place has gone to single use tape, which is always easily accessible. The forceps/tape/shears thing will be a thing of the past soon- infection risk. But, some of my scrubs have thigh pockets without the little thing that keeps shears upright, so I still holster up for the quick draw occasionally.
Our rooms have clocks with second hands, so I don't use a watch.
Also- we don't enforce phone rules, so mine is always accessible for when the clock is broken, calculator, Up To Date, etc...
In my pack I have a bag with tooth paste, deodorant, phone charger, ear buds, that sort of thing. It is actually the same bag I use for short personal trips. 12 hour shifts are long. I occasionally hop on transports, often an hour each way. I grab the bag, mostly so I can watch Netflix on the return.
Unrelated, but a good ER tip if you do long transports. Got your phone but no ear buds? Want to watch Youtube or whatever on the return? Stethoscope on the back of your phone works in a noisy diesel ambulance.
LCC6133
20 Posts
Decent stethoscope, shears, pen. Use your stethoscope, don't just have it as an accessory which I see so many nurses do. Also a cheap watch because it will get bodily fluids on it at some point.
amzyRN
1,142 Posts
Stethoscope, 2 pens, paper to write on, shears, hemostat with tape. I always grab a bunch of flushes and alcohol wipes too. A good watch.