What's in your pockets?

[tokmom]

My co-workers laugh at me in a good natured way, because I look like a tool belt. My pockets are bulging with 'stuff'. Guess who they come to though, when they need something and they see me down the hall?

In my right pocket (yes, I'm anal, lol) is my pocket protector. It has two pockets. One has some change for the vending machine, and the others have my pens. One multi-colored pen and one blue pen that I can hand over to families if they need to sign something. Alcohol swabs, a sterile 2x2, op-site, 2 claves, and some sterile caps. My handy 3:1 tool and my scissors.

Left pocket contains lipstick (must look beautiful while under stress:p) monies for lunch (if I get one) and my key to my locker.

[*LadyJane*]

Left scrub pocket, phone, lip balm, post it notes pad, a couple ibuprofen pills (for me) if needed, binaca. Right scrub pocket, 1 G2 pen, a fine point sharpie pen, note pad, alc wipes. Pants pocket, car keys, a $20. I need less gear because of supplies in the rooms, or I can grab what I need on the way to a room.

[Blackheartednurse]

* a lots of alcohol wipes

*tape

*calculator

*scissors (a must!)

*several 10ml saline flushes

*three black pens (I loose them all the time)

* one black sharpie

That is my standard equipment..I carry a clip board with me as well.

Ocassionally I throw in a 1ml syringe in my pocket (if I know I have a pt with Heparin injection)

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

Pt data, L thigh pocket. Wound care stuff (scissors, alcohol preps, flushes, tape) R thigh pocket. Penlight, pens, markers R scrub pocket. L scrub pocket is "my" stuff -- iTouch with Skyscape, money, Advil, the stuff that pt's don't touch.

I used to have oodles of stuff in my pockets. The long I work, the less I drag around.

[JordiesMomRN]

These posts are hilarious! It's nice to know that I'm not the only one.

Breast pocket: Cell phone and tiny drug look-up book

Right scrub pocket: gum, lipgloss, $5 for lunch, if someone will pick it up for me

Left scrub pocket: 4-color pen, blue pen, alcohol pads, and few flushes

Nothing in my pants pockets

I also have "my" corner in the nurses station with various other things ie: lotions, pencils etc..........

[MikeyBSN]

R upper cargo shirt pocket -Trauma Sheers

R lower cargo shirt pocket -tape (the good clear kind, not that paper crap)

L lower cargo shirt pocket -alcohol pads

L upper cargo shirt pocket -1 black pen; 2 red pen and one sharpie maker

L leg pocket -an endless supply of saline flushes

R upper leg pocket -cash

R lower leg pocket -Emergency and Critical Care Pocket Guide, ACLS Version (Paula Derr)

Stethoscope around neck; name badge.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Oh yeah, tape, lol. That too and the gum. Forgot my gum. Cant live without it.

I like the idea of a dry board pen. Most of ours suck. Maybe I'll get one that is a fun color. :) Good idea, people.

Love this thread. I'm not the only one loaded down like a camel!

[CFitzRN, ADN]

I'm a pocket-stuffer too...I wear 4-pocket scrub tops (two on each side) and pants with two cargo pockets on the right and one on the left.

Right-hand shirt pocket: two pens, dry erase marker, scissors and patients sheets.

Lower right-hand shirt pocket: alcohol swabs, sterile caps and cough drops.

Left-hand shirt pocket: tape, yellow hi-lighter, black sharpie marker, sterile 2x2's and a spare secondary IV line set.

Lower left-hand shirt pocket: 2 or 3 clave connectors, day-of-the-week label stickers for IV lines, safety pins (for JP drains).

Upper cargo pocket on right leg: Spectra link phone.

Lower cargo pocket on right leg: multiple 5ml saline flushes.

Left cargo leg pocket: couple of 10ml saline flushes, two or three 18g 3cc needles, two or three insulin syringes.

Back pocket of my pants: cell phone and cash.

I'm so dependant on everything being in its specific place that I have to stick to the same style scrubs or I can't find anything! I love my scrubs, got them from UniformAdvantage.com...'Butter Soft' scrubs

Holy snot, you must lose 10 pounds when you get your jammies on at night!!

[lisamc1RN, LPN]

Wowzers! I think I'd have back problems after lugging all of that around all day! LOL. I'm a minimalist, I guess. I use the 2 pockets in my scrub top. I keep my 2-3 pens in the right pocket, along with the med cart keys. In the left pocket I keep my report sheet, lotion, and whatever I need for a particular patient at the moment. When I'm done with the scissors, alcohol pads, glucometer, etc, they immediately go back where I got them from.

[PAROPPY, BSN, RN]

Wow everyone is so prepared. At the end of my shift this is what is in my pocket: Those little blue stoppers that you pull out when you spike IV bags, IV caps, med cups, pen caps (no pens though), one glove, rubber bands, and the plastic packages that flushes come in. Also, these things end up in my washing machine and dryer.

[RNforLongTime]

I travel lite because it's such a small unit I work in that I don't have to go far to get stuff.

In my right pocket of my scrub jacket, I keep 2 black pens and one multi-colored pen. In my left jacket pocket, I have a carpuject, bandage scissors and a curved hemostat along with numerous alcohol swabs. In my scrub top pocket is my iPhone..with numerous medical apps.

[NBMom1225]

Yep, at the end of the shift I unload all of this into a large zippered pencil pouch I keep in my locker and feel at least 10lbs lighter! I work on a 45 bed unit, and our assignments often have us running from one corner of the unit to the other, so having all of the supplies with me saves a lot of running. I also made a little cheat-sheet of the most important Spectra-link phone codes which I keep tucked in a sleeve attached to my badge, just another way of keeping myself from running back to the nursing station every time I need a phone number!

[murphyle, BSN, RN]

Seconding what NBMom said - I'm in Emergency, so if we have five minutes to sit down in a shift it's a miracle, and the fewer trips you have to make to "Wal-Mart" (our huge supply storeroom) in a day, the better.

Our room carts are pretty well stocked, but some stuff we just go through like mad - for example, everyone gets a saline lock at some point, and by about 1400 or so 20ga Angiocaths tend to be in short supply. (Our supply volunteer, who re-stocks our carts, doesn't get there till school gets out at 1530.) Patients tend to be anxious about being in the EC already, and very few people enjoy intravenous access, so it's easier if I can just pull a catheter out of my pocket and go rather than "Oh, sorry, there's one more piece of equipment I need, hang on just a minute while I go search the department and get detoured five more times in the process."

I do draw the line on some items, though. We often start running low on fracture pans and urinals around 1400 too, but no way I'd carry THOSE in my pockets!