Whether you’re a student nurse on placement while getting your online bachelors in nursing or you’ve recently switched from hospital-based work to a community nursing role, you’re going to need a large nursing bag.
Unlike working in a hospital or a medical practice where all of the equipment is already available, you’ll need to gather your own supplies when you work in the community.
As a district nurse, you never know what you’re going to be facing when you walk into a patient’s home. That’s why it’s vital that you are fully equipped with the right medical items to meet the unique needs of each of your patients.
From dressings to antibiotic gels to transpore tape, your bag needs to be packed full of the necessities at the start of every shift. Staying organized and gathering your supplies each morning will ensure that you can provide the best care to every one of your patients.
So, what are the necessities? Here are four things that every community nurse needs to have in their bags.
A Variety of Dressings
Wound care is one of the most essential aspects of a community nurse’s job. Keeping wounds clean and covered is vital to ensuring they heal quickly.
To keep your patient’s wounds covered, you will apply a variety of different dressings onto the affected area of skin. Depending on the size, location, and severity of a patient’s wound, you’ll need a specific kind of dressing.
Keep your nursing bag stocked up with at least five of each of the main dressing types, including:
- Foam dressings
- Cloth dressings
- Mesh and gauze dressings
- Hydrocolloid and hydrogel dressings
- Transparent films
You may also need more specialized dressings if one of your patients has a particularly challenging or slow-healing wound. If you’re caring for a patient with a slow-healing wound, make sure to stock up on the most suitable types of dressings for them each morning.
Medical Tape
Medical tape is easy to tear or cut and provides a water-resistant adhesive to secure dressings, small medical technologies and devices, and bandages in place.
Most medical tape is designed to stay in place for at least 72 hours, meaning your patient’s dressings will be secured until the next time you pay them a visit.
There are multiple different types of medical tape, each of which can be used in different scenarios. Make sure that you have latex-free medical tape to hand in case one of your patients has an allergy.
Scissors
Scissors might sound like an unusual item for a nurse to carry around, but without them, you will struggle to properly cut your dressings, bandages, or medical tape.
Keep a small pair of scissors in your nursing bag or in the pocket of your tunic, ready to grab when you’re in the middle of changing a wound dressing.
Hand Sanitizer
As a nurse, you’ll be washing your hands a lot throughout the day but if you don’t have immediate access to hot water and soap, hand sanitizer is a great alternative.
Your hand sanitizer will kill any germs and contagious pathogens that are on your hands, which is essential to avoid cross-contamination between patients.
