To ask if you’re a nurse

[y0rkier0se]

What things are essential? My best friend from childhood is retraining and starting a nursing degree in February. What can I buy as a gift to make her life easier? All ideas appreciated as I don’t know any real life nurses! Thank you.

I was a nurse a very long time ago. We got through tubes of neutrogena hand cream.

A fob watch? Nice coffee maker/pot for Nightshift?

Practical things like a fob watch, thick black tights or black socks, notebooks, nice biro pens, small rucksack.
Otherwise treats like foot spa socks, sleep masks, luxury toiletries.
Is she living on campus and you could get something for her room.

I’m a midwife. Brilliant gifts for me when training were a fob watch, hand cream, stethoscope, name stamp and black pens! Not a fancy pen as it will go missing but big packs of cheap black pens

Lovely thread. Definitely hand cream. Lots of it. Red and black pens (biros, not gel pens unless she specifically wants them). I would go for cheapish as they will get lost and quantity is better than quality! Bic four colour pens are also fab. Small notebooks that would fit in a pocket. Tea, coffee etc.

If she is starting as a student then vouchers for textbooks might be useful.

At the risk of sounding nerdy my absolute favourite nursing book is Benner’s From Novice to Expert. Also love The House of God by Samuel Shem but this is NOT for the faint hearted and is very American. You would need to check first if you thought it was suitable!

Yep to fob watch, even if she thinks she already has one as she will put it in the wash I am out of uniform currently but used to really like the ones that come in a silicone outer as easy to wipe over. A good supply of black clicky pens that can be hung on your lanyard of pocket easily!

Oooh what is also good are those little post its that you can mark pages in textbooks with. In fact post it notes in general are great.

A nice pair of bandage scissors

As RudeAF says it is very important that the pens are clicky pens with a clip .

Lots of black pens, their own special mug (sometimes wards can be funny about people having their own mug), a new diary (my life is ruled by my Filofax and was even more so when a student nurse and writing down shifts that change all the time.)

What a lucky friend she is to have you.

Travel mug for journeys to and from work or just whilst there
Lunch bag / thermos pots for reheating food
Personalised drinks bottle that can't get mixed up

As a student nurse who returned to study over a year ago now- yes to black pens, those packs of small notebooks you get like 4 for £1 that fit in a uniform pocket. Lots of notepads for studying. A keep warm coffee cup. Or some cheap mugs as mine have been nicked on two placements...

Clicky pens, black, red and green. A pen torch. A silicone covered fob watch. Good strong scissors. Sounds odd but a small pot of vicks vapour rub, when I was a student I realised that the smells of various bodily functions made me feel sick and a bit of vapour rub on the end of my nose helped block them out. Now I'm hard core and no matter what the smell my stomach can cope.

You are amazing, thank you! So many things here that I wouldn’t have had a clue about! I’m going to make her a hamper with your ideas in

A sealable water / drinks bottle, also a sealable container for hot drinks
A pen which can write different colours
Small pocket sized notebook
Small pocket sized address book - for keeping note of all the telephone extension numbers

Hair scrunchies
Hand cream
Fob watch
Lanyard
Pens (black, or a fancy one with four different colours)
Highlighters
Pocket notebooks
Bath stuff
Eye mask for sleeping (for nights)
Travel mug and some nice tea/coffee/hot chocolate
Personalised water bottle/flask
Chocolate
Foot massager
Destress colouring book and pencils

Peppermint cooling footspray from the body shop - definitely get her a bottle of this! It saved my feet on placement.

I’d recommend a water bottle, black pens, hair bobbles if she’s got long hair, little note book, even some bubble bath and smelly stuff to help her relax after a long day at uni or shift on placement. Ps what a fab friend you are!

www.thebodyshop.com/en-gb/body/foot-care/peppermint-cooling-reviving-foot-spray/p/p000676

This is the stuff, it's amazing.

Just to add.... all drinks containers need to be waterproof!! Lost count of times I've had a coffee burn running for the bus or a leaking water bottle in my bag!

Tequila, WKD blue, cans of red bull and cheese toasties got me through my nurse training.

Practically I think a good water bottle, little note books and a deliveroo or Costa voucher would be useful in my opinion.

Pens (black inn).
Comfy shoes!
Hand cream.
Alcohol for winding down after particularly challenging shifts!

Fob watch, pens, pens, pens!! Yes to black socks. I recently treated myself to plain back ones with cats on from next and they're wearing/washing really well. Another thing I've bought is compression hosiery, you can get them off amazon and they have nurse designs. Great for anyone on their feet all day, especially long 12.5 hour shifts. Look after your legs!!

I’m not a nurse but know a few - they love gel insoles to keep their feet as comfy as possible during shifts

www.physioroom.com/catalog/Insoles/2013.html

A thermal mug as she will never get to drink it hot!
Fob watch
Small notebook
Black pens. I like gel pens but most use biro’s.
Scrubs are really useful at the moment, most frontline wards are all wearing scrubs. Our trust provides them but I prefer to buy my own and wash them separately at home.

If she is training-Royal Marsden student edition, manual sphyg/stethoscope, pen torch, little notebooks for her pocket to take notes on placement, anything stationary for theoretical bits, a good pharmacology book (bnf is useful, but not useful for pharmacology), a drug calculations book, flash cards, a good anatomy and physiology book, highlighters...all or any of these I would have been very thankful for!