any specific tools or equipment you use

I hate to say it, but we use dedicated patient equipment on my unit...disposable stethoscopes in the rooms, scissors that come from the sterile processing department, etc... I do still wear my own stethoscope because my unit also takes other patients, and sometimes I'll slide it into a glove and use it if I can't hear well enough with the disposable one. I would definitely not use scissors on one patient that I'd used on another--I wouldn't even want them in my pocket because by the end of a dressing change they're slippery with xeroform goo/bacitracin/fluids!

I can't think of any specialized equipment that we use, honestly, at least not that a nurse would carry around. (I mean, we have a Bovie on our unit and other units don't, but it's stored in a storage room!) We also put on yellow gowns to go into most rooms, so I don't even carry red caps/saline flushes/alcohol wipes in my pocket- too hard to get them out! I stash a few on top of the IV pump at the beginning of my shift.

Brilliant! Thank you :)