Uniforms,etc...

Gompers, BSN, RN · Jan 30, 2004

When I was in school you were responsible for getting everything yourself, but the school ordered our initial uniforms. We just gave our sizes and money to the school and they provided them. However, if we needed replacement uniforms after that, it was up to us to find something comparable, and to remove the school patch from the old uniform and sew it onto the new one.

Everything else we bought ourselves from either uniform supply shops, medical bookstores, or the internet. Definitely a stethescope, bandage scissors, hemestats, and a pocket calculator. The hospitals provide BP cuffs, but you might want to buy one of your own to use for practice.

You probably don't need to get it all right away. Once you start your first nursing courses they'll tell you what to buy, and when.

Nurse Ratched, RN · Jan 30, 2004

My school was very specific about what you needed to have, right down to where exactly (2 inches from the bottom of the sleeve) and on which arm of our (must be) cranberry-colored scrubs the patch identifying our school had to be sewn onto. Uniformity was the word of the day. We also had to order our name tags and had very specific instructions on how they were to appear.

We had to have a steth, but it wasn't specified what kind. I think we were also required to have bandage scissors, a mini snellen eye chart (lemme tell you, that thing got NO use EVER) and our drug book (Mosby's.)

The semester we started clinicals was definitely the most expensive as regarded "incidental" costs.