10 Nurse Essentials That Every Good Medical Worker Needs
Only 1.2% of people with nursing degrees who are actively looking for work are unable to find it.
The global need for qualified nurses has exploded in the United States in the last decade. There are almost half a million jobs out there and the median salary for nurses hovers at a massive $75,000 per year.
If statistics like that have moved you towards taking steps to become a nurse or if you already are a nurse, it’s important that you’re well versed on the tools you need to be able to bring your best to your job, day in and day out.
That is what inspired our team to create this article. Below, we’ve compiled a list of the:
Top 10 nurse essentials every nurse should always have on hand or nearby
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A High-Quality Stethoscope
Perhaps the most common item on our nurse essentials list is a quality stereoscope.
Stereoscopes enable nurses to better hear a patient’s breathing and monitor the oscillation of their hearts.
While many medical offices provide nurses with stethoscopes free of charge. You may find that these are sub-par, heavy, and prone to malfunctioning.
Because of that, it’s not uncommon that nurses have their own stereoscope they purchase during medical school that they take with them to work.
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Medical References
There is a lot to know about health. Doctors and nurses alike spend years attempting to commit to memory everything they can in regard to common conditions and symptoms.
At the end of the day though, they all occasionally need to reference texts to help them discern certain conditions.
For that reason, keeping your favorite medical reference books and guides nearby is always a good idea as an R.N.
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Over the Counter Medicines
Nurses get paid well but let’s face it, that pay comes in exchange for long hours and sometimes grueling shifts. In order to alleviate common ailments you may experience while working, our list of nurse essentials recommends having some OTC medicine handy.
Simple medication to help relieve headaches or manage a cold can be instrumental in your ability to trudge through 10 to 12 hours of work.
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A Notebook
During a busy shift, you may find yourself needing to manage a variety of requests from a ton of different patients, doctors, shift managers and more all at once.
To keep people’s asks organized, carry a notebook. That way you can quickly jot down requests and never create conditions where things fall through the cracks.
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A Tourniquet
You never know when you’re going to be faced with an emergency situation where you need to take life-saving action quickly. Because of that, many nurses put having a tourniquet or two on them at the top of their nurse essentials lists.
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Medical Tape, Bandages and Dressing Scissors
Ensuring that you have proper first aid equipment nearby will reduce your need to run back and forth when a patient could use immediate attention.
We find that things like bandages, tape, and dressing scissors are particularly helpful to keep in a pocket or fanny pack.
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Gloves
1 out of every 25 hospital patients will get a healthcare related infection given the number of germs that are present in medical settings.
To make sure that your constant exposure to those germs does not adversely affect your health, you’ll want to make sure you always wear gloves and have a spare pair available just in case.
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Hand Sanitizer
Again, it’s important that as a medical professional you do everything in your power to prevent the spread of hospital germs. It’s also partitive that you protect your health to ensure that you’re available to help serve patients on a daily basis.
One of the best tools to enable you to achieve both of those ends is high-quality hand sanitizer.
While hand sanitizer has faced scrutiny in recent years in regard to its usefulness, many qualified sources say that it can kill up to 100% of germs present on the surface of your hands.
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A Water Bottle
Dehydration is a common threat when working overnight for long periods of time. This is especially true if you spend most of that time on your feet.
For nurses, long hours standing are par for the course and for that reason, having a water bottle handy can be instrumental in keeping your focus sharp and your body performing.
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Something to Make You and Your Patients Smile
A hospital environment can feel sterile and intimidating not only to patients but to workers as well.
Everyone wears matching scrubs. A sea of white walls and tile… It can all create a very unwelcoming experience.
To help make the hospital you work at warmer, consider punching up your scrubs with designer scrub hats that you can learn more about or anything else that’s dress code accessible and different.
A little pop of color can do wonders to brighten a patient’s day. Make finding clever ways to do that a priority among your nurse essentials!
Wrapping Up Nurse Essentials
Being a nurse is a popular yet demanding field. If you are looking to head down that career path, we recommend considering incorporating the nurse essentials we’ve mentioned above into your daily routine.
Whether that means carrying around a life-saving tourniquet or making an effort to brighten your medical practice’s ambiance, our suggestions will help you become a more successful and happier medical professional!
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