Nursing School Must Haves??

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I am potentially starting Nursing school Fall2010 (God willing) and was wondering what are essentials that you all have that you would reccomend to others?? Things for organization, or whatever...Thanks!! :)

I know it sounds dorky but a rolling backpack!

I REFUSED to get one until I had to carry all 7 million of my books to class.

and now i have it, i love it :)

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I know it sounds dorky but a rolling backpack! I REFUSED to get one until I had to carry all 7 million of my books to class. and now i have it, i love it :)

I'm planning on getting one of those carts with a hard top you can sit on. Even dorkier than a backpack. Go big or go home, right?

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Mine is more of a travel suitcase almost lol. i really do love it though and the days i have ALL my classe and all my books dont fit, i just throw the ones that done in another back and set it on top :)And I drive a minivan too...with 1 kid and im 22 :)

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LOL. I swore I wasn't going to get a rolling backpack, but now I don't know. We have 19 required books; of course we don't need all of them every day, but gosh! Our school is offering about six of them in print and ebook format, though, so we can download some of them onto our laptops thank goodness instead of carrying them all, really cool. And of course those are only available through the bookstore and in a package, but since we use most of them for all four semesters, I think it will be well worth the money. Just our syllabus is almost 400 pages . . . . I'm hoping that is also for all four semesters?!

Has anybody done the 'velcro your school patch to your scrubs?' We have a strict dress code, and the shirts for school are embroidered and a certain type/style, so I'm kind of stuck with those. Then the scrub tops embroidered are about $20 each, so they said we could get the patches at $2 each and then velcro them to the scrub top, but I don't want the patch falling off all the time or it becoming a nuisance. However, most importantly, if I do it this way I will be able to bleach my white scrubs; with the school's colored patch embroidered on, I can't, so I would actually rather do the velcro idea because of that, but has anybody had problems with velcro-ing? Peace of mind is worth more than $ to me!

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my school recommended velcro also because the patch runs in the wash, so I would do whatever the school recommends. I don't think that the patch will fall off if you get a big enough piece of velcro.

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Thanks to everyone who has posted advice. Great thread, thanks for making it! I have read all the posts and made a list for myself. Just got my acceptance a few days ago and I'm so excited! GL with nursing school to all!:yeah:

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I suggest a handful of bandage scissors, if not a dozen. I had some instances where mine wrestled w/ some really icky wounds/bandages. Ofcourse I cleaned them immensly before leaving the patient room but really, who has time to scrub equipment in clinical? I don't have time to do my own dishes at home. Which reminds me, lot's of paper plates, cups, and bowls are very helpful when you are in nursing school and have a family to feed. :)

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Thanks for all of the input! I just want to start getting all of my stuff together, but I haven't even had orientation yet!:p

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I have a question about the Skyscape stuff. Most of my books I am buying, but I am going to get our required Davis Drug Guide through Skyscape for my Blackberry, I think, because then it is constantly updated, and I've been in the medical field for many years, before Internet, and it was hard to keep up with new drugs; now you can just search, but back then the books were outdated so fast. I think the drug guide is worth the money to buy a subscription for the constant updates . . . .

So then I was going to get one of the clinical guides my school recommends and/or the 5-minute consult. Now through Skyscape you buy your subscription for a certain amount of time, so for $80 I can have access for a year, but this 5-minute consult is also available through my Blackberry App World and it is the same price and says nothing about a subscription . . . so is Skyscape really the way to go, or can you buy some of this stuff "out right" so to speak and have it for longer instead of buying a subscription for a limited time through Skyscape? I know every few years you might want to update this, but new diagnoses I don't think are a month-to-month needed update. What do you use? Did you buy the book or subscrption on PDA?

And, did anybody use RN Notes or some sort of clinical guide for their med-surg semester that they would recommend; these are kinda cool through Skyscape since you can buy a 4-month subscription and then get each guide for the specialty you are doing each semester, but again, is it worth buying the book to always have this stuff or is it really that convenient and worth the money to keep buying subscriptions for these each semester? I think while in school it would be best to buy each specialty's subscription each semester, but I'd like to hear if you guys still use this stuff and/or would the book be better to have in the long run. Any recommendations on the med-surg clinical guide you used are very much appreciated!

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Any good shoe recommendations for clinical? I have some running shoes but they're not that comfortable...

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NCLEX Review books! So helpful!

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NCLEX Review books! So helpful!

Agree!! Saunders is great study book for ALL of my classes!

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