I am starting a new job tomorrow and and just started cleaning out my work bag...what a mess! I've carried the same huge Vera Bradley tote for a little over a year and it's filled to the brim with a bunch of old bills, lotion, carbon copies of PTO requests, etc.
What do you use to carry your stuff to work? I probably need to downgrade to something smaller as my new work environment is cramped. What do you put in it? I have a makeup bag, extra car key, calendar, change, a calculator, my badge, pens, pencils and highlighters.
I don't do a work bag, as I have a locker...but in the locker I have:
Power bar/breakfast bar
Advil
ACLS book
ICU Book
steth
flashlight/penlight
scissors
imodium
pepto
tums
5 bucks in 1's
(bad side to nightshift...if you get sick in the middle of the night, there's no pharmacy or store to run to to get tylenol/imodium/throat spray, etc.)
I work in an outpatient clinic so we don't wear scrubs or need to carry supplies for dressings or procedures. We don't tend to get too much nasty stuff on our clothes, but we all wear lab coats for doing dressings, catheters or taking out staples/sutures or any other procedures. Oh yeah, in my car is my ID badge. I need it to swipe to get into the parkade and no one in my clinic wears them.
I use one of those open-able clipboards, in which I have my neonate steth, several pens and mechanical pencils, a couple sharpies, an eraser, and a stack of my home-made brains, several tweezers/hemostats/scissors. I keep the clipboard in my new locker (finally got one after nearly 2 years...) along with a 32oz water bottle and 2 NICU certification study guides.
Thanks for all of the replies! I had pretty much everything that I needed supplied for me (each patient had their own stethoscope, blood pressure cuff, alcohol, chlorascrubs, flushes at the bedside). I guess it might be time to dig out the old stethoscope and throw it in the bag just in case! I hadn't even thought about forks and knives, taking for granted that I could always grab one from the nourishment room if I needed to.
* I carry a little storage clipboard...I really just use it that way I have something hard to write on when I take report lol (we do report at the bedside) but I also like to throw in papers and other things for reference, + I keep my iPod in there that has a really nice lab value reference + Micromedex, which is now FREE btw (I already have enough junk in my pockets at work + my personal phone + phones that we are required to have on us at work)
* Because I am still on orientation/probation, I also carry a folder filled with papers that I need to have checked off
* I took a class on vasoactive drips provided by my hospital, and we got a little book with notes...so I carry that with me as well. It has everything based on OUR hospital policies regarding these medications, so it is a good reference.
* IV drug guide...even with Micromedex/Lexicomp (we have the latter on our computers) + drug reference manuals that we can pull up from our EMAR, it is still good to have yet another source. We don't have a 24hr pharmacist at our hospital.
* Manual of Critical Care Nursing book. Amazing.
* Keys & wallet, which go in my locker
* bottle of ibuprofen
* lipbalm!!
* gum
* scissors, tape, hemostat, highlighter, several pens, dry erase marker (so I can write my name on the board)
* some tampons
* bottle of hand sanitizer
* hand lotion
* snacks! usually a granola bar of some type, piece of fruit (usually a banana) and some of those Blue Diamond dark chocolate almonds...
looks like I'm the only one here who carries reference manuals... No shame in that, my coworkers are always borrowing them!
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keep extra tee shirt in locker. I'm the one everybody want s to come borrow stuff from
No shame in that, my coworkers are always borrowing them!
That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B
3,421 Posts
I just go to the OR and grab some scrubs when people think i look like the basin to puke in.