What is in your clinical binder?? I'm having difficulty organizing it

[JMJ523]

I'm on a PCU floor and my clinical instructor wants us to have our binders so organized, and have all cardiac meds on a chart with nursing assessments. Pretty much everything. I was just wondering if anyone has good ideas on how to organize a clinical binder and or if anyone has a cardiac med chart that they would like to share! Hope I get some feeback. thanks guys!..My clinical instructor is TOUGH. I've already been told I suck at reporting lol.

[Stephalump]

We don't have clinical binders, but I'm intrigued. What do you keep in it?

[Bouncyball]

We don't have clinical binders either. In fact, our instructors discourage us from carrying anything but a brain sheet that we can fold up and keep in our pocket.

[SC APRN, DNP, APRN, NP]

We aren't allowed to carry in anything but lunch, coat, and the stuff that is in our pockets or on our uniform: stethoscope, pen light, pens, scratch paper, watch, badge. Everything else is on the floor or available on the computer. No exceptions! I'm not sure when I would have time to look at a binder during clinical. Do you have computer access?

[phuretrotr]

For the nursing assessments, I am sure you can fit that onto one page. For cardiac meds, are you talking all the meds you could possibly give on a cardiac floor, or just your specific patient medications? Either of them will work with a chart that's easy to make, although all cardiac meds are a little much I think.

Just make a table in word with 4 columns and 7 rows. In the first column just go down the rows and label them:

drug name (generic and brand),

classification,

indication for use,

MOA,

route and dosage (also what your patient is currently taking),

assessment of that drug,

and possible side effects.

If you need more columns, just copy and paste the table to a new page.

Or if it is allowed, you can make note cards with 1 drug per card so you can slip the cards in your pocket during clinical.

[SunshineDaisy, ASN, RN]

I, too, am interested what is in the binder. Most of us use those clipboards that open up. In mine I have my clinical worksheet (that alone is 12 pages ), extra pens, those little cheat cards, like common lab values, EKG sample, stuff like that, my stethoscope when I am not using it, and then a little bag with my tampons/pads in it. I leave it in the locker room and carry stuff in my pockets when I am on the floor (steth, pen, pen light, scissors, brain sheet for my pt).

[BlueEyedGuy]

I had a simple brown clip board with a cardboard folder clipped to it. A lot of my classmates got a cool clipboard from Walmart that was plastic (easy clean), you could fit paper inside the body, and it had a calculator on top.

All I brought to clinical was a drug book first semester (CI didn't want us using phones). After, than I just used the Micromedex app on my phone.

Does she have a list of cardiac meds you need to have? Otherwise just pick a prototype drug the most popular one from each class of drug (digoxin, ACE, ARB, Beta blocker, each class of diuretics, Statins, CCBs --there's a bunch of different kinds though norvasc, Procardia,verapamil, and Cardizem would be a good start--, Amiodarone for sure, Adenosine, atropine, find out if you need to know pressors (dopamine, epi, norepi, vaso), dobutamine, etc. Then just make spend time on excel making it pretty, and put references on the bottom professors love references.