2 Items I Wish I Had Before Starting Nursing School

Nurse’s Pocket Drug Guide 2012 by Judith Barberio

Why I wish I had this before nursing school:

Being a nursing student is stressful! One of the absolute biggest worries you will have is messing up on medication administration. Believe me when I say that this is the most likely place for you to make a mistake that could actually hurt a patient. Ideally, your preceptor will be watching what you are doing, but when it comes down to it, you the student nurse are ultimately responsible for any medications you pass to your patients. If you’re tech savvy like me, and you own an iPhone or Android phone you might be thinking why not just download an app for that? I can tell you from personal experience that pulling out your iPhone or iPod Touch on the unit has several disadvantages. For one, nurses may see you with your phone out and assume you are texting or checking emails. It is not always possible to explain that you are actually not a lazy nursing student and are actually using it for a legitimate purpose. Another disadvantage is the fact that there are a lot of nasty bugs in the hospital and you will inevitable end up using your device with less-than-clean hands at some point as you scramble to look up a medication while your preceptor waits. Yuck!!

So why do I recommend this particular drug guide? First and foremost, it’s small, measuring 5.3 x 0.7 x 5.4 inches and fitting easily into your scrubs pocket. Second, it is comprehensive but nursing oriented. This guide has pretty much any drug you are ever going to be giving as a student and it focuses on nursing considerations such as adverse reactions, interactions, and whether to give it with food, rather than going into pharmacological information you don’t absolutely need at the bedside. Finally, and maybe most importantly, IT’S CHEAP!! At $9.99 you really can’t get any more bang for your buck. I can’t even tell you how many times this book saved my life in nursing school and I highly recommend it.

RN Notes: Nurse’s Clinical Pocket Guide by Ehren Myers

Why I wish I had this before nursing school:

If Nurses Pocket Drug Guide was my “Ying”, then RN Notes by Ehren Myers was my “Yang”. This is a classic pocket-sized nursing bible that will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that if there is something you could conceivable be “expected” to know as a nursing student, it is probably in here. This guide has lab values, procedure set-ups, ACLS protocols, assessment tools, and more. A registered nurse who used the 2010 version of RN Notes gave it to me as a gift early on in nursing school and I liked it so much I bought the latest edition just for the updated content. This one cost more, at $22.17, but honestly, for what you get this is a great price.

*Note:

 While my primary goal is to provide potential second career nurses like yourself with information that will help them to succeed, if you do decide to purchase these items through the links on my blog, it will cost you exactly the same amount, but The Second Career Nurse will receive a small commission on the sale. Thank you.