Aside from the essentials like your phone, keys, and wallet, the following are stuff you need or might consider putting in your work bag.
- Stethoscope. I’ve been using the same stethoscope for years now and it’s a 3m Littman Classic III. Extra fluid accumulates in the lungs too so you need a good quality stethoscope to hear those lung sounds properly.A thorough assessment can help you gauge how much fluid to take off and determine next steps in the patient’s plan of care.
- Pens. Permanent and whiteboard markers. Highlighters. My favorite pens as of the moment are the Mr. Pen black pens and Pilot Acroball 4.
- Medical scissors/Trauma shears. These will save you time for those instances when you want to drain effluent bags as quickly as possible
- Water bottle. You will have to stay with patients for hours so make sure you drink water whenever you can.
- Coffee tumbler/mug. This thermos has been the best one in my experience. I sometimes still want to drink coffee or have something warm later in my shift and I find that this thermos keeps coffee/water warm for hours.
- Battery pack/Phone charger. Prepare your phone charger or a battery pack. Depending on the company/hospital you work for, they might provide you a phone/tablet which you will use to communicate with the rest of the team.
- Medicines.You’ll never know when you might get a headache, stomach upset or feel unwell so bring some meds with you.
- Food. Your 12 hour shift can easily turn to a 16 hour shift so it’s better to bring extra food with you.
- Extra scrubs/underwear/socks/shoes. I once got my scrubs and shoes wet due to a water source issue so I already learned my lesson.
- Nut driver. We use this whenever we have to tighten the gooseneck adapter to a faucet that’s not compatible with the hose/tubing that’s connected to our reverse osmosis machine. This should be provided by the hospital/company but in case you can’t find one, you can use your own.
- Gooseneck adapter/connector(?). A connector that we use if the faucet is not compatible with the end of the hose/tubing that we have. Again, this should be provided by the hospital/company. But if for some reason that all of them are gone, at least you can use your own and avoid wasting your time.
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My Life as a Dialysis RN 