First OB Clinical

Happy happy Friday everyone! I think it’s gonna be a very interesting semester this year in nursing school

I was scheduled to have my first OB clinical yesterday. We were going to a Pittsburgh hospital from 2 PM until midnight. Around noon we got an email from our instructor that we were doing zoom from home. Apparently the school did not get the papers filled out in time so we were unable to be on the floor at Clinical.  Because the hospital is so far away from me (about 1 1/2 hours) I was already in the car on the way to a fellow students home to drive from there. So I was all dressed with my gear when she texted me and told me it was canceled in person and we would be zooming at 2 PM.

Needless to say it was a very long day being on a zoom clinical from 2 PM until midnight. The instructor let us go around 1130 but that was still a very long day.

Hopefully we will have better luck next Thursday!!!

in the meantime I will leave you with a picture of all my clinical gear that I systematically took off after I heard in person Clinical was canceled.

Our cute navy scrub tops and pants… and yes I am working on the weight loss… UGG I hate seeing that size on my scrub top but you can not change that which you do not acknowledge, right?!?! (I blacked out the school because we’re not allowed to put any kind of school names on any kind of social media.)

My awesome stethoscope… It was a gift for my parents the Christmas before I started nursing school! Love it!


My awesome bandage scissors… We have to have these with us for every Clinical. Mine are from Amazon!


Just like the scissors… We have to have our medical pen light with us for every clinical. I got mine from Amazon I think!


I got this adorable lanyard for my badge from my nieces and nephews.  It was a Christmas gift right before I started nursing school. They found it at Bath and Body Works…it’s has sanitizer built right in!!!

I also use these awesome pens I found on Amazon. I saw another nurse with them at my first Clinical and they are so helpful. They hang right from your badge holder so they are always ready and available when you need them! They’re perfect for writing vitals or labs and initialing IV tubes and the sharpie comes in handy when you have to label bandages.  I found them on Amazon and it was the best investment for nursing school!

I always have a little cash on hand… The instructor told us the cafeteria would be closed except for grab and go but they have vending machines. Usually these hospitals have vending machines for Panera soup. That’s what I was hoping for at least. I also packed a dinner of protein bars almonds and dried mangoes just in case the vending machines only had candy. Lol!

I always keep this little baggie in my zipper pocket of my scrub pants. I have Bayer baby aspirin to chew in case I start to get migraine lights ( if you get migraines you’ll understand.) and it also has some cough drops and some ibuprofen. You just never know when you’re going to need that. We can’t have any items on the floor with us so this is the easiest way to be prepared if you yourself have an emergency.

This is my best friend! I got it at a local health store and it is like a natural version of a Vicks inhaler! One thing I have learned is that nursing doesn’t always smell pretty. This is perfect you sniff it up both nostrils before you take care of some not so pleasantly scented issues. It has made Clinical life much better.

This is my nursing watch. It has a secondhand and the plastic repels germs. It’s fully waterproof too! This was a gift from my parents for Christmas before I started nursing school also.

I found this little gem on Amazon. Another girl in my clinical was using one and I loved it. It’s a metal folding clipboard. You can put all of your patient files and important information in this clip… Then you can fold it in half and it fits right in your scrub pocket. It is fantastic because it also gives you a hard surface to write on!


As you can see on the outside of it there’s a little cheat sheets for different lab values, needle gauges, eye millimeter sizes and shot locations, etc. 

This is one other thing I always make sure I take to clinical. Nurses are not able to hydrate throughout the day. You’re so busy that before you know it it’s been four hours. So it’s super important to stay hydrated however you can… especially when nurses work 10 and 12 hour shifts. This stuff has been a godsend! The swell bottle was a gift from one of my very best friends Donna. I fill it with water and then add 1 1/2 of the liquid IVs. They taste amazing and it keeps you hydrated and feeling good all day!


So that’s it! Just a little view of what prep is like for Clinical… And then just like that it was canceled. Ha ha! I guess if nothing else you have to be flexible in nursing school!

And as you can also tell nursing school isexpensive! Once I graduate and get established I’m going to figure out how to do a grant for new nurses. When I started I had no clue how expensive it was going to be. I knew how much school cost but you really don’t have a clue as books and testing software are more expensive than school each semester! I had no idea about that. Also all of the gear that you need for nursing school is unbelievably expensive! Between the equipment and the special embroidered scrubs it ends up costing a whole ton of money. 

I would love to help someone else once I graduate and get established!

That’s all for me! As you can tell, I think now that school has started up I’m going to try my best to at least post once a week. That should be doable. Monday is dosage Calc and I will definitely post after that to let you know how it turns out.

Have you ever thought about starting a scholarship for someone less fortunate? have you paid it forward lately ? How do you pay it forward? 

Thanks for all the well wishes and support! You guys are amazing! Hugs and stay safe out there!!!