How do I carry all of my stuff?

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EM Junkie

EM Junkie

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So as a new EM intern, I am having a hard time deciding what all to cram into my scrub pockets. I don't want to wear a white coat in the department either. What kind of cool holsters/bags does everyone use to carry all of the essentials?

I guess I could just get a giant fanny pack and wear it around like anesthesia, but surely there has to be a better way!
 
I wore a fanny pack for the first two years in the pedi ER. Then I decided on code cards, an in-house produced trifold of emergency meds and a calculator. With the calculator I could figure out any urgent, but not emergent, med doses I needed.

Good luck, and remember less is more... except when code cards are involved. Code cards are always worthwhile.
 
Call me the world's biggest dork (lots of people do) but I wear EMS type pants with big pockets. I started back in residency. I faced the same problem so I hauled out some of my old EMT pants and they were great. Now I can carry all kinds of crap like gloves, flashlight, pens, forceps, trach kit, guiac developer, shears and so on without wearing a coat which makes me sweat. I can also carry my wallet, cell phone, and pager (back when I had one😛) without my pants falling down. The pants I have even have this rubber strip inside the belt that keeps your shirt from pulling out when you bend over. Dorky, but functional.
 
Less is definitely more. I carry sanford, the pharmacopia, and a peds codecard in my pocket. Everything else goes in a bag I throw under the doc's desk. I used to carry trauma shears but now I just borrow from a nurse or tech if I need them. Even in a big ED you are never more than a few steps from that bag and most of the crap that is in there doesn't get used for many many shifts so why carry it around. I could see carrying everything in a pack if you were running all over the hospital.
 
I carry a pharmacopeia in my front pocket, my PDA w/ Pepid in my side pocket, and an EMS holster w/ shears, a pen-light, a #11 scapel, a 14-gauge angiocath, and a set of forceps on my hip. Stethoscope goes in my other side pocket. No white coat for me, either... 🙂

A peds code card is a good idea - I think I will add that to the arsenal.
 
docB said:
Call me the world's biggest dork (lots of people do) but I wear EMS type pants with big pockets. I started back in residency. I faced the same problem so I hauled out some of my old EMT pants and they were great. Now I can carry all kinds of crap like gloves, flashlight, pens, forceps, trach kit, guiac developer, shears and so on without wearing a coat which makes me sweat. I can also carry my wallet, cell phone, and pager (back when I had one😛) without my pants falling down. The pants I have even have this rubber strip inside the belt that keeps your shirt from pulling out when you bend over. Dorky, but functional.
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thats a nice idea. i used to wear those pants doing the emt stuff and found them very useful back then.... I agree about the shears, i keep some in my white coat but you really dont need them since a lot of folks have them or you can find them close by.
 
docB said:
Call me the world's biggest dork (lots of people do) but I wear EMS type pants with big pockets. I started back in residency. I faced the same problem so I hauled out some of my old EMT pants and they were great. Now I can carry all kinds of crap like gloves, flashlight, pens, forceps, trach kit, guiac developer, shears and so on without wearing a coat which makes me sweat. I can also carry my wallet, cell phone, and pager (back when I had one😛) without my pants falling down. The pants I have even have this rubber strip inside the belt that keeps your shirt from pulling out when you bend over. Dorky, but functional.
Click to expand...
Hehehe, you sound like one of the EPs at the hospital where I volunteer. I usually do the same with my EMT pants and just shove it full of gloves, penlight, a pen, stethoscope, trauma shears, and then a notepad. You can fit almost EVERYTHING in them, so it's a wonder why I haven't seen scrubs out there with the same number of pockets.
 
I'm with the PEPID-carrying turtle. I carry mine on my hip though (it is also my phone...a Treo). I carry a Tarascon's pharmacopia in my pocket and that's about it.

I wear a white coat into the department with my Sanford, my hospital phone book and several other references. As soon as I walk in, it goes on my chair back and serves as a place to hold my stuff.

Take care,
Jeff
 
EM Junkie said:
So as a new EM intern, I am having a hard time deciding what all to cram into my scrub pockets. I don't want to wear a white coat in the department either. What kind of cool holsters/bags does everyone use to carry all of the essentials?

I guess I could just get a giant fanny pack and wear it around like anesthesia, but surely there has to be a better way!
Click to expand...


Simple solution.........I wear my white coat in the department. most don't , but I've got too much stuff I can't part with yet.

later
 
I'm with Jeff. My white coat looks like a disaster with all sorts of crap in it (gum, hemoccult developer, pocket cards, etc.) and it goes straight to the chairback when I walk in. Carried around are shears, stethoscope, pen, light, and palm pilot.

I'm not fond of the manpurse to carry all my stuff around.
 
drewpydog said:
I'm with Jeff. My white coat looks like a disaster with all sorts of crap in it (gum, hemoccult developer, pocket cards, etc.) and it goes straight to the chairback when I walk in. Carried around are shears, stethoscope, pen, light, and palm pilot.

I'm not fond of the manpurse to carry all my stuff around.
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I carry around exactly the same amount of stuff. Pen, stethoscope, scissors, PDA, pager, and pen light. Anything else is just useless decoration.
 
The a**pack is the kind of dork. 😉


I carry: scalpel, 14g angiocath, steth (clip on, my neck gets tired). zone phone

Anything and everything else gets dumped in a bag that sits on my desk. (pda, random drugs, lotion, pens, scissors, whatever....)

all these things you can get when you need them. No need to look like a freaky pack mule.

And there is NO such thing as a cool fanny pack or those goofy pants. NONE. and its alla bout the cool.
 
The only things you NEED to have on you are
1. Pen
2. Scripts
3. Stethoscope

Our scrubs have a cargo pocket where my Stedmans and trauma shears reside. The palm has Epocrates and Hopkins ABX guide. Fanny pack = way not cool. And way too anesthesia like.
 
It's all a matter of personal style. All of the above styles, from nothing-but-scrubs to fanny pack to coat to cargoes are acceptable.

I usually wear cargos. I feel more comfortable with an actual belt than that flimsy drawstring. I also really like to have my Maglite. The puny little otoscope lights don't cut it for looking at pupils/pharynx/other places with poor lighting.

I've done the scrubs-and-nothing-but-steth thing and I usually end up looking around for stuff. Hate doing that. Even though I'm an academic attending and I rarely have patients by myself I still like to be prepared. I even carry hemeoccult developer.

I occasionally decide that I look better in a coat. Patients and ancillary staff do react to you better when you're wearing a coat. I find that it gets stuck on things and I lose it when I pull it off to tube someone, do a procedure, etc.

Comfort and utility (for me) Cargoes > scrubs > coat
Patient satisfaction Coat > scrubs > cargoes
 
One of our senior residents had a fanny pack stuffed full of stuff. He looked like a complete dork, and was the constant butt of many jokes. As a result, fanny packs have been banned in our ED by popular request.
 
I'm a scrub top/cargo pants kinda guy. I keep my script blanks, pen, and gum in my shirt pocket. Stethescope in my right regular pocket, and Palm Pilot (Epocrates, 5min EM consult, various calculators) in my cargo pocket. When I work fast track shifts, I will usually carry my digital camera in the other cargo pocket so I can take pics of lacerations, etc to upload onto the e-chart....That's about it....
 
Call me old fashioned, but for two years in residency I wore a shirt/tie/labcoat. Senior year just scrubs and a lab coat. In my labcoat was:
Hemoccult develloper and cards (poop juice)
Tarascon Adult EM Book
Pocket Phamracopeia
Pen light
Scripts
Stethoscope
Trauma shears
my patient log sheets
Sanford
tongue depressors (for all thsoe broken jaws I saw in tampa)
Fluorescein strips
my ID badge
my three 3x5 EKG quick look cards

that's it. I have my first shift as an academic attending in 9 days so I am not sure what to wear but it'll probably be about the same (minus patient log sheets and the tongue depressors).

Q
 
I've gotten pretty minimalistic, and also use the bag-under-the-desk trick. I carry a pen and a backup pen, tube o' chapstick, Tarascon Emergency Medicine (the little yellow book - Rockrock is one of our attendings), a pharmacopeia, and a piece of paper for my list of patient stickers. Steth around the neck; occasionally I'll remember my shears, but they're usually in the bag. We have these department phones, too, which are handy, but sure weigh down the pants.

If I'm working a peds shift, I usually grab an ear curette and a couple of tongue depressors, too.

I don't even carry my PDA much anymore...

I am thinking about adding cargo pockets to my existing scrubs, although I'd have to find matching fabric and take the time to do it.
 
pen, calibers, pda, stethoscope, bill fold........no coat......
 
no .... KALIBER (that cold refreshing nonalcoholic brew).....
 
Everyone's ER is different. Where I work there are usually no gloves on the wall, JACHO has outlawed guiac developer, none of the nurses have shears and I can easily be 50 years or more from my bag. That doesn't even begin to address the floor codes and intubations that I have to respond to, usually 2-3 times per day. I just do better and faster with stuff on me.
 
docB said:
Everyone's ER is different. Where I work there are usually no gloves on the wall, JACHO has outlawed guiac developer, none of the nurses have shears and I can easily be 50 years or more from my bag. That doesn't even begin to address the floor codes and intubations that I have to respond to, usually 2-3 times per day. I just do better and faster with stuff on me.
Click to expand...


since when is guiac developer outlawed? 😱
 
GeneralVeers said:
Sure it's not the Dodge Caliber? That might fit in some of the larger cargo pockets.
Click to expand...

hey! my arse is big....but not *that* big!!
 
12R34Y said:
since when is guiac developer outlawed? 😱
Click to expand...
We routinely hear that JCAHO has banned it from the rooms for everything from patients using it as eye drops to it has be be done to lab license standards with a log and controls etc. It's not in the rooms at any of my houses. Two ERs won't even keep the cards in the rooms. If you don't carry the stuff with you you run for it or ask and wait for it.
 
docB said:
We routinely hear that JCAHO has banned it from the rooms for everything from patients using it as eye drops to it has be be done to lab license standards with a log and controls etc. It's not in the rooms at any of my houses. Two ERs won't even keep the cards in the rooms. If you don't carry the stuff with you you run for it or ask and wait for it.
Click to expand...


Guiac is not in our ED because the lab won't allow us to have it for "quality control" reasons. I sometimes carry some around if I can find it, but it's a pain in the ass.

BTW we're told that JCAHO does not allow any personal belongings in a work area. I'm not even allowed to keep my backpack (which is my doctor's bag) in our physicians work room. Is this an actual JCAHO rule, or is it just BS from our evil nurse manager?
 
GeneralVeers said:
Guiac is not in our ED because the lab won't allow us to have it for "quality control" reasons. I sometimes carry some around if I can find it, but it's a pain in the ass.

BTW we're told that JCAHO does not allow any personal belongings in a work area. I'm not even allowed to keep my backpack (which is my doctor's bag) in our physicians work room. Is this an actual JCAHO rule, or is it just BS from our evil nurse manager?
Click to expand...
I thought the regulation was no personal stuff in a patient care area.

I just recently got into a big fight with our nurse administrator because some JCAHO consultant was going off on me about having a coke on my desk. I was in the middle dealing with a critical patient when this consultant starts announcing loudly that the coke shouldn't be there. I pointed out that the written policy for the hospital is that you can have a drink at a desk as long as it's covered which it was. I then asked the contingent of administrators to get out of the ER. I probably shouldn't have done that but oh well.
 
docB said:
I thought the regulation was no personal stuff in a patient care area.

I just recently got into a big fight with our nurse administrator because some JCAHO consultant was going off on me about having a coke on my desk. I was in the middle dealing with a critical patient when this consultant starts announcing loudly that the coke shouldn't be there. I pointed out that the written policy for the hospital is that you can have a drink at a desk as long as it's covered which it was. I then asked the contingent of administrators to get out of the ER. I probably shouldn't have done that but oh well.
Click to expand...
Ahh administration. You take away their right to inundate you with loads of worthless paperwork and complain about your right to basically exsist within 50 feet of any patient care area then you take away their will to live.....
As to the "what do I carry rule", I have two rules. 1. If I can't spell it I don't carry it. 2. If I curse more than twice in one shift for not having a piece of equitment in a timely manner then I find a way to carry it. So far that has left me with a scope (shortened because Im stupid and I will probably spell it wrong much to your amusement), a pharmocopeia (I probably spelled that wrong but I cuss to much If I don't have it on me and if you think that the administrators hate it when you leave a coke out.....Nobody appreciates a well placed f bomb anymore 🙁 ) The third thing I carry is trauma shears because I can rarely keep the ancillary staff in the trauma bay short of physically restraining them let alone expect them to do anything useful or carry something useful. (i.e. shears).
 
totalbodypain said:
Ahh administration. You take away their right to inundate you with loads of worthless paperwork and complain about your right to basically exsist within 50 feet of any patient care area then you take away their will to live.....
As to the "what do I carry rule", I have two rules. 1. If I can't spell it I don't carry it. 2. If I curse more than twice in one shift for not having a piece of equitment in a timely manner then I find a way to carry it. So far that has left me with a scope (shortened because Im stupid and I will probably spell it wrong much to your amusement), a pharmocopeia (I probably spelled that wrong but I cuss to much If I don't have it on me and if you think that the administrators hate it when you leave a coke out.....Nobody appreciates a well placed f bomb anymore 🙁 ) The third thing I carry is trauma shears because I can rarely keep the ancillary staff in the trauma bay short of physically restraining them let alone expect them to do anything useful or carry something useful. (i.e. shears).
Click to expand...


Plus the shears are useful for ritual suicide when you just can't take it anymore!
 
totalbodypain said:
Or for ritual homicide when you can't take your EM-1s anymore 😛
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Is there a ritual to offing your interns? Damn, I always thought it was OK to just do it quick and dirty. If I have to lean a new ritual it will slow me down more than trying to find guaic developer.
 
docB said:
Is there a ritual to offing your interns? Damn, I always thought it was OK to just do it quick and dirty. If I have to lean a new ritual it will slow me down more than trying to find guaic developer.
Click to expand...

fortunately, the ritual involves guiac developer!
 
docB said:
:laugh: Cool. I don't have to drink it do I? :scared:
Click to expand...

No, but one of my colleagues last year (then an intern) decided to use the guiac juice in the eye instead of proparicaine drops. Needless to say the patient wanted no further participation in THAT ritual.
 
I avoid the asspack bc frankly, my ass is too big and the thing is too small, despite wearing it in front !! lol!!
I carry all the usual crap too however, I wear one of those canvas carpenter's nail bags with all the pockets--it says "Home Depot" on the front in orange, about $10 bucks or so...what can I say? I used to be a carpenter...
 
GeneralVeers said:
No, but one of my colleagues last year (then an intern) decided to use the guiac juice in the eye instead of proparicaine drops. Needless to say the patient wanted no further participation in THAT ritual.
Click to expand...

You know, I was just getting prepared to bash JACHO on the guaic rule. I was thinking: "Only a complete idiot would pick up a random bottle of drops and squirt them in his eye. Should we have to protect stupid people from themselves with hundreds of needless rules?"

Of course, after reading you post, perhaps they made the rule with good reason...
 
docredhawk said:
I avoid the asspack bc frankly, my ass is too big and the thing is too small, despite wearing it in front !! lol!!
I carry all the usual crap too however, I wear one of those canvas carpenter's nail bags with all the pockets--it says "Home Depot" on the front in orange, about $10 bucks or so...what can I say? I used to be a carpenter...
Click to expand...
Sweeeeet.

If I ever need a roofing nail removed from my hand, or even a good fracture reduction, I want my EP to swagger into the room wearing that carpenter's apron. For real. 😎
 
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