STCC 2010?

Does anyone know about WorknGear in West Springfield? Can we get our stuff there? I just got a gift card and would like to use it! I'm so excited I can't wait for September!!!

I've never been to Work n Gear. What stuff do you mean? Most of it you have to get through the school.. the only thing you could probably get away with is different pants.. just make sure they are the exact same color or they are going to spot you fast lol. They are pretty strict on dress code in the first semester, I wouldn't have bought different pants until I saw how relaxed the second semester was on dress code-- but that could only be due to my clinical instructor this semester. See if they have penlights or watches or stethoscopes or something else you will need... Or shoes! They probably have nice white nursing shoes.

Questions for current students......Are we required to buy a specific stethoscope or can we just buy whatever we want? There is a ton of threads here about stethoscopes but everybody has different opinions... seems like the litman cardiology III is the best one but costs about $135... can buy 2 of the classic II se for that price. I dont know if I want to spend that much as a student...will hate to lose it. Is classic II se good enough.. I found the cheapest litman stethoscopes at Redding Medical supplies Littmann stethoscopes and Welch Allyn blood pressure units and Littmann Stethoscopes including Cardiology III, Classic II SE & Electronic .. medisave seems cheaper since they do free engraving while redding charges you $12 even though their stethoscope prices are about $ 5 cheaper...

also should I get reusable penlight or the disposable ones? I have been reading that even the reusable ones have a certain hours of bulb life... so am i better off with disposable ones? I found some cheap ones here:

Amazon.com: ADC ADLITE Disposable Penlight with Pupil Gauge (6 Penlights): Health Personal Care

are these any good?

Thanks.

You can buy whatever stethoscope you want. I have the Cardiology III and I love it... but I've also never tried anything else LOL. A lot of students have the classic II, I think. As for pen lights... I've bought 3 this school year. The first one died before I even got to bring it to my clinical site, I bought that one from Life Uniform. I bought one from the book store (which I LOVED..) at STCC and it lasted me up until a few weeks ago. I just bought another cheap crappy one from Life Uniforms just because the semester is almost over and I'll probably buy the nice one from the bookstore again next year. Be careful with these tools that you don't touch your patients with them, and alcohol swab the crap out of them between patients. I alcohol swab pretty much EVERYTHING I took into the hospital once I get home lol.

i think the question of work-n-gear in west springfield is still unanswered. the answer to your question, and what i have personally done, is purchase my scrub pants there as they are half the cost of the pants in the bookstore. make sure that they are cherokee workwear cargo scrubs in royal blue. what i did before i started school was when i was in the bookstore purchasing the required scrub tops and lab coat was write down the style number and color of the pants offerred in the bookstore. that way i could make sure i was buying the exact pants that the bookstore was selling at $20 per pair vs. $11 or so. the only things you have to purchase at the bookstore are your lab coat and scrub top as they are required to say "stcc nursing" in this beautiful royal blue. as for the question regarding a stethoscope, i purchased a littman classic ii se prior to the start of school and still have it. your stethoscope is one of those things that will not be let out of your sight nor will it ever "wear out." i did not spend the extra $$$ to have it engraved, rather i bought a plastic name tag (at workngear) and affixed it to my steth. as for pen lights, purchase the cheapest one you can find. actually the best one i got was from a conference we went to my second semester. it is still going strong. :-) keep the questions coming! :-)

what is the nursing kit that we will have to get for the lab? do we have to buy it from the bookstore or we can get it somewhere else?

its a bag that contains all the supplies you will need for the two years of lab (blood pressure cuffs, syringes, foley cath, etc etc etc).. and yes you need to buy it in the bookstore, you can't get it anywhere else, it is put together by the school.

Just wondering ... anybody got the letter for orientation yet?

No, nothing in the mail yet...... I thought that it would be sometime in May, but some students in college saying orientation will be right before school

That cant be.. we cant even register until orientation and according to past posts there is a lot of stuff that needs to be done before school starts.... like books, uniforms, cpr certification etc... I guess we will just wait and see..

our orientation was in june, we got our letters in may at some point i believe.

Hello all,

Thank you so much for all of your posts. The information you share is soo helpful. I called STCC this morning regarding orientation. I was told it would be on May 20th and it will be all day. Mark your calendars! For those who have done orientation last year, do you remember if it began at 8:00 or 9:00?