What's in your pocket(s)?

Published

just for fun.............

if i walked up to you two hours into your shift and asked you to empty your pockets onto the table, what would we see?

what type of unit do you work in?

i'm curious what nurses have on them at all times.

thanks!

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

Inpatient psych unit.

Keys for all these locked doors

PDA (doubles as a drug guide)

Pens (black, red, my charting pen)

Pencil

Small 3x5 notebook

Random post-its with notes on them

Random unit doses of drugs that I had to go pull from other units since ours was out of it

Eyedrops

Breath mints

Lip balm or gloss

A little bit of cash

Occasionally a highlighter

Up Vote Up Vote ×

LTC subacute/rehab hall. I report to work with the following:

Right pocket--scissors, 2-3 black pens, red pen, highlighter, pen light, Sharpie, 3x5 cards

Left pocket--drug guide (with lab value cheat sheets tucked inside), hand sanitizer, cough drops or breath mints

After no time at all, I also have my assignment sheet/'brain', med cart keys, gloves, tissues, alcohol wipes, twist-off tips from lancets, empty blister packs...

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in LTC, M/S, CCU, ER.

I have actually gone to buying only scrub pants with leg pockets so that I have more pocket space! I carry an orificenal around with me, but I eventually use it all:

Black pen

Black sharpie

lip balm

breath mints

alcohol swabs

bandage tape

bandage scissors

stethoscope (don't put mine down, they grow legs too easily)

phone (turned off)

PDA (which has many nursing references on it, especially Tabers and a drug guide)

driver's license

small amount of cash (sometimes)

Motrin

Xopenex inhaler

Slips of paper with necessary info scribbled

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU, nutrition.
Great thread! I was wondering if anybody uses those stethoscope hangers that I believe clip onto scrub pants? I saw them in the uniform store a couple of days ago and wondered if they were any good/practical. I can imagine a steth around your neck being a pain at times, and it would be great not to have to stuff it into a pocket. I start clinicals soon so am open to any and all suggestions. :D

I bought one of those when I was an ICU nurse and I didn't even make it through the shift. Maybe if you were an EMT or paramedic and used to having stuff at your waist it would be OK but it drove me nuts!! I always just put my scope around my neck when I was walking in the room to do an assessment, otherwise it was on the desk, along with all my other work supplies. The only thing I kept in my pocket then was my lunch money and a pen.

I do nutrition support now and I'm out of my office and on multiple floors all day, so I have to carry everything I need with me.

Right pocket: multiple pens (I am always misplacing them, so I pick them up on one floor and lose them on another), pink and yellow highlighters, whiteout pen (not for medical record but for our patient Kardexes), lip gloss, work cell phone and chapstick.

Left pocket: my atrium frequent buyer card (buy 9 lunches and get 1 @ 50% off), my frequent buyer coffee card (dunno what the special is, I hardly ever buy coffee there but maybe 5 years from now I'll get a free cup or something), the little plastic sleeve that's supposed to be behind my nametag with whatever crap admin wants you to have on it (mission statement, my goals for the year...that part is blank, TJC cheat sheet, what all the overhead page codes mean...code blue, code red, code pink, Delta, etc), note pad, cover of said note pad with multiple cell phone, desk and pager numbers for people I need to call but so infrequently that I can't remember the number, KY jelly, a maxi pad, and Kelly clamps.

My bag: laptop and its cord (because the 8 hour battery usually makes it about 6 hours and my shift is 10 hours), palm pilot, stethoscope, nitrile gloves (I'm allergic to latex and I hate the vinyl gloves they keep on the floors), tape, a clog zapper, a bridle, a feeding tube or two, a 60 cc slip tip syringe, trauma scissors, my patients' Kardexes, and blank TPN order sheets, Kardexes, feeding tube placement orders, enteral nutrition orders and protocols, and parenteral nutrition order sheets and protocols.

Pants pocket: personal cell phone on vibrate & lunch money. If I'm wearing scrubs with no front pockets, that stuff's in my left lab coat pocket.

I've actually managed to lighten it to the bare necessities, believe it or not!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OR, Informatics.

alcohol swabs

a tourniquet

a roll of Transpore tape

a pen

a bouffant cap

and occasionally Tums or mints

I am a nurse tech in the OR. I mostly work in the pre-op holding area, starting IVs and performing a final check on paperwork and the patient before they head back in to the OR.

I'm really particular about my pockets, and what is in each one. Probably something to do with my Virgo nature.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

SICU- cell phone and chap stick in one pocket, then in the other my little pocket organizer that holds my scissors, hemostats, ekg calipers, 2 different colored pens, a sharpie mini, pen light, and a little reference card on labs. I also usually keep my brain tucked in that pocket as well when it is not in use.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Acute care, Community Med, SANE, ASC.

I float critical care and med-surg. For me the important thing is to always have the same stuff in the same pockets.

Right scrub top pocket: pen, penlight and keys to med boxes and my report sheets

Left scrub top pocket: alcohol wipes, tape and Carpuject thingy.

I wear Koi scrub pants only so I have scissors in the right leg scissors pocket and hemostats hanging from the little utility D-loop. Actual pocket then contains my lip balm and sometimes additional report sheets depending on what unit I'm on.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

RN general medicine 12 hour nights. I carry alcohol swabs, NS and heparin syringes, ink pens, sharpie, labels for iv tubing on one side and my folded up pt asssignment. A little note book with lab values and some other stuff scribbled in it. I usually wear cargo pants to carry all of my stuff. On the clean side I carry lotion, tissue, chapstick. I have a roll of tape too on my stethoscope. Oh and I am usually charge so I carry the phone and pager.

I don't carry my personal cell phone. I need to carry scissors but I usually lose them. Never lost a pen but lose scissors. Go figure.

How could I foget. I have money for trips to the vending machine for those little chocolate pickmeups.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I always seem to end up with way too many pens and pencils (most of them not mine); those red caps that go on IV tubing; alcohol swabs; way too many rolls of tape; several saline flushes; stethoscope; pen light; lip balm; scissors; forceps; ID card; reading glasses; print out from vital signs machine; "brain"; and anything else I come across that looks useful (lubricant gel; A&D ointment; bandaids)!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU Level III.

NICU:

scissors (sometimes)

2 pens

a pencil

a highligher (sometimes)

iphone

tiny brush in pant leg and oil wipes in pant legs (hey, i get oily at work!)

oh and calculator in pant leg that i leave at whatever computer i am charting on.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med-Surg Nursing.

I work in an adult ICU/CCU

In my pocket are:

1. Bandage scissors

2. Pair of Kelly hemostats

3. Carpuject syringe holder

4. Alcohol wipes

5. numerous pens

6. penlight

7. lip balm

8. Cell phone(DON'T use it during my shift but don't want to risk it getting stolen out of my purse)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in skilled nursing LTC.

I work LTC..usually in my pockets

pens

scissors

highlighter

change

keys to my cart

alcohol wipes

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion