UPDATED FOR 2021
Getting ready to start nursing school?
Chances are you are feeling a dash of excitement, a pinch of overwhelm, and a whole lot of scared to death. That’s normal. Nursing school is a big step.
Unfortunately, if you walk into nursing school unprepared, you’re already behind the curve. So, what do you need? Here are our must-have nursing school supplies for nursing students.
Almost more than anything else, we get nursing students emailing us daily saying they struggle with the way they are being taught. Either the material isn’t explained well, or professors are just reading PowerPoint slides. We saw a problem and decided to fix it!
We have created courses covering the most complex portions of nursing. Each course includes video lessons, cheat sheets, quizzes, case studies, care plans, and multiple methods of instruction.
On top of that, we’ve created powerful study tools like flashcards, image and audio databases, and massive NCLEX test question databases.
All our instructors are nationally certified in their field (meaning they have certified in their specialty beyond RN).
We packaged all these courses and tools together into NURSING.com
The purpose of NURSING.com is to bridge the gap of what you’ve read and been taught to make it finally “CLICK” and make sense. You know that feeling you get when the light bulb finally turns on? You will have a lot of those in our courses.
In fact, we call those moments “LINCHPINS,” and our entire curriculum is built around providing you with those moments.
You can get started with NURSING.com today:
You can’t do nursing school without the right clothes . . . that’s just crazy talk.
Now, this one is tricky. Your nursing school may have guidelines on the types of scrubs you can wear, so you need to check on this first. Find out if you have to wear certain types, colors, or brands so that you don’t buy scrubs you can’t use. But, if you have some freedom, here’s what you should consider.
You need pockets. You are going to be carrying around quite a few small items – pens, pieces of paper, notebooks, guide books, etc. You need to have a place to put all of those things, and, if you are allowed to, think about scrub pants that are painter or cargo style.
Read through ALL the annoying papers your school sends to you to make sure you are buying the right scrubs.
One brand that we love is Benefit Medical. They create athletic-style scrubs . . . if you have some freedom . . . check them out (see the above picture).
Seriously, what list of nursing school supplies would be complete without the RIGHT pair of scrubs?
Yep . . . you read that right. . . (see above). Many nursing schools require that you wear white scrub pants. Once you get past groaning over this, keep in mind that you will want to invest in some flesh-toned underwear…and you might prefer that they are designed to avoid panty lines too.
Ask any nurse, and they will tell you how important awesome shoes are. In nursing school, you will be on your feet all the time. And, without the right shoes, you are going to be in pain. There may be guidelines on what shoes you can wear, so check with your school on this.
When you go shopping, you can try different options, but some of the most preferred brands include:
Pick shoes that are comfortable for your feet, though, by taking the time to shop around. I have never personally used “nursing shoes” . . . when I started in nursing, my favorite shoes were Nike Free . . . they don’t provide much support, but it feels like you are walking on marshmallows.
I find the design of Brooks Men Walking Shoes perfect for every male nurse. The shoes’ upper part is made of pure GENUINE LEATHER… which makes them a durable staple to my wardrobe.
Price
Pros
Cons
Dansko Men’s Professional Clog is another fantastic pair in my collection – if you are looking for the Best Nursing Shoes for Men this is certainly an option to consider. While wearing them, I can stand and walk all day comfortably due to its supportive base.
Price
Pros
Cons
When looking for professional men’s shoes, Clarks is among the brands that win my heart. But despite its professional look, Clarks Men’s Cotrell Free Loafer has a casual design.
Price
Pros
Cons
New Balance Men’s Training Shoe is classic and versatile wear that has incredible designs. I’m a fan of New Balance brand as it designs shoes that provide solid all-around performance.
Price
Pros
Cons
Nike Men’s Air Monarch IV Cross trainer is a sturdy sneaker that performs well when exercising and working.
Price
Pros
Cons
My classic retro feet companion! This shoe is another must-have for male nurses looking for style, comfort, and stability.
Price
Pros
Cons
Rockport Men’s Chranson Walking shoe is a great pick that offers a premium look and comfortable interior.
Prices
Pros
Cons
This pair is among the most loved all-white shoes. It consists of a synthetic sole, all-white leather upper, and a grey bottom – you are going to walk A LOT as a nurse so looks into these as the Best Nursing Shoes for Men.
Price
Pros
Cons
You now have a list of the best shoes that will make your nursing career enjoyable. But you need more…
Okay . . . despite being made fun of . . . this is a handy little tool to have during nursing school.
To be honest, I used an over-the-shoulder bag all throughout school . . . and now I have scoliosis (not really).
Do you want back pain or long-term back injuries? If you do, then, by all means, carry around a normal backpack. However, if you enjoy walking without pain, then you need a wheeled backpack.
The textbooks you need for nursing school are very heavy and unwieldy. Getting something you can drag behind you is just a very good idea. . . .
I have hung on to a good portion of the books I used during nursing school, and they take up an ENTIRE bookshelf . . . my MedSurg book alone is 4 inches thick. No, I’m not joking!
You can find a pretty big selection of decently priced wheeled backpacks on Amazon. If you can’t get yourself to do it. . . I also wrote another post on nursing bags here.
RELATED ARTICLE: 7 Best Nursing Bags For Nurses
I have a confession . . . I don’t, nor have I ever used a “nursing watch.” So why have I included it here? Because most schools will require you to purchase one and bring it to clinical.
Instead of a watch with a second hand, I either used my phone or the clock in the patient’s room. Most hospitals have clocks in the rooms with second hands, or a timer on my phone worked well.
The reason you need SOMETHING to measure time precisely is that many meds must be administered according to a set amount of time. Like over 2 minutes, over 5 minutes, within 10 seconds . . . these watches make that possible.
Here is one that seems popular on Amazon if you choose to purchase one.
Displaying your name for people to know who to write their comment cards out to is not the only convenience of having a badge clip. You can keep some pretty important information on here that will make your job easier. I personally keep an EKG box measurement tool on my badge along with all the important numbers I need to call.
The only thing about badge clips you should know about is that you MUST have a solid, sturdy device. Spend the extra $2 or however much for the good kind. I have broken the string, broken the plastic part that loops through your badge, I have had the entire casing pop off to find a curly piece of metal that flew out and hit me in the face. Just trust me and get the good kind.
The alternative to the badge clip is the lanyard. This may seem like a sensible solution to the badge clip drama until you are turning a patient and suddenly your neck is now held captive. Or you lean over all the things nurses have to lean over, and well you get the picture.
Despite my obvious bias, there are plenty of people who prefer the lanyard to the badge clip, leaving you with the conclusion that you should dabble with both before you pledge to one way or the other.
Organization and time management are two of the most difficult things to adjust to and manage as a new nurse. Here are a few things that can help with that
You are going to have a great deal going on in your life during nursing school. You don’t want to forget anything and you don’t want to get so frantic trying to remember everything that you pull your hair out. Larger stores usually have student planners. This way, you can write your schedule, make notes, and keep up with important phone numbers.
We have done a few podcast episodes about this before:
What it really comes down to is finding a method that works for you and STICKING WITH IT . . . every time you change up your organization method, you waste a ton of time re-learning a new system. Find something you are comfortable with and stick with it.
While I was in school, the thing that worked best for me was a simple excel spreadsheet . . . now I mostly use Google Calendar.
Ashley Adkins RN has a great video about nursing school planners on her YouTube channel:
Check it out here!
You are going to be taking a TON of notes during nursing school. Having a way to condense those notes and make them usable is important. If you are old-fashioned (like me), you will want to buy a lot of large note cards, not the 3X5 ones but the bigger ones.
Also, check out Quizlet . . . this is a digital/crowdsourced flashcard site. It can be really helpful when you connect it with the app . . . allowing you to view your flashcards anywhere.
The only caveat is that anyone can create any flashcard . . . the downside to this is that you can’t be 100% certain the information is correct on public flashcard decks.
Watch HERE!
Have you ever tried to remember a whole lecture? Or, have you ever scribbled down notes in a hurry and then found it impossible to decipher them when you got home? There’s an easy solution to this problem. Get a tape recorder and actually record lectures so you can listen later.
Sony makes a great voice recorder with 4G of internal memory . . . sounds like a lot? Just wait!
As I mentioned above, my MedSurg book alone was 1,800 pages and over 4 inches thick.
While I appreciate having the information AVAILABLE, it becomes very hard to determine what information is necessary and what you actually NEED to know.
To help with this we’ve created a few online study guides that you can access at any time.
Our two biggest study guides are:
On those pages, there are links to save to your Pinterest board. I’d recommend starting a “Nursing” Pinterest board where you can store and save awesome nursing resources . . . make those two pages your first pins. (in fact, maybe save this post too).
I know most people already have a Facebook account, but within Facebook, you can create private groups. Once school starts you should create a Private Group for your cohort or for your study group.
My cohort used the FB group like crazy!
Within the group, you can clarify assignments, vent, and share funny stories, etc. We were able to get a tremendous amount of work done and save our sanity with this simple tool.
Added Bonus:::: since school has ended the private group has been a way for us to stay in touch and share what we are doing since graduating.
I am a little obsessive about matching and organization, so when I learned of this color system, I thought it was the best thing ever!
Now you can change the colors around, but know that I chose the colors I did base on what the colors usually represent or mean. Red is a color that is associated with intensity. I use red here to call out due dates. These are important and you want to keep a close eye on red!
Use over the text:
Use in the margins:
Now in practice here is how you want to use this system. Let’s say you need to do a quick review before a test. First, you want to start with Orange. If there was anything that you need more time to learn make sure you find these sections and get some help!
Second review all your yellow highlighting. While you took notes or sat in class you spent the time picking out things that you knew were important, or items the instructor specifically mentioned would be on a test. Now go back and make sure you really understand and have those areas committed to memory!
While you are reading material or creating your own notes, you will use your pink, blue, and green highlighters.
While you are in class or reviewing notes use your orange and yellow highlighters.
Use matching sticky arrows to mark the page for specific things you need. The orange and yellow sticky arrows will be the most useful in this case. You can use them to mark the pages that have yellow or orange highlighter sections. This will make your test reviews very efficient and productive! This will also allow you to quickly access everything you want to discuss in a meeting with your professor. Once it has been cleared up you can remove the sticky arrow and know that you have addressed it!
Post-it notes can be used in so many ways. They can help mark specific pages. They can be used to write your notes on. Then you can go back later and pull out all those sticky notes and arrange them by color. If you created a yellow note for everything you expect will be on the test you could then collect all the notes stick up on a wall and review them daily for a week before the exam.
You can also use them to insert the information you want to add to your notes or text when there isn’t enough room to do so on the page. I used to like to pull out my textbook during lectures to the section we were reviewing. Instead of taking notes on a separate sheet of paper, I would create sticky notes and add them to the area in the textbook. I only took notes on things that weren’t already right there in the text, so it saved time and also put ALL of the material in one place.
Here are a handful of tools that I either used on the clinical floor or wish I had as a student nurse on the clinical floor.
There are two kinds of people in the world:
It sounds strange, but it really is that important. Try to spend one day in nursing school with a pen with a cap, and see how that goes. You will lose that cap. You will likely lose the pen because you can’t attach it to yourself. And, you are definitely likely to end up with ink stains and marks because you don’t have the pen’s lid.
Clicky pens are much easier to use. You can connect them to your scrubs, and you can stow them away without worrying about ink.
To say that nurses are slightly anal about their pens is a MASSIVE understatement . . . we are INSANELY possessive, anal, and obsessive about our pens. Do yourself a favor and buy clicky pens!
Yep, just basic Sharpie markers . . . these are useful during clinical when you need to write on medication stickers that will go on IV fluids, etc . . . . You can also get the fine point ones that help in note-taking etc . . .
To be honest, I generally had two Sharpies . . . one fine point and one larger one. The larger ones are great for writing on IV bags.
Every Friday, we email out a brand new PDF document with condensed clinical information on it . . . we call them our Friday Freebies.
Along with the cheat sheet (or reference sheet if the word cheat offends you) I tell a clinical story from my experience on how the information provided applies in the “real world”.
We literally cover EVERYTHING (I think): labs, OB/Peds, Pharm, Cardiac, Mental Health . . . you get the picture.
Join over 100,000 nursing students, nurses, nursing educators, and other health professionals and get on board with the Friday Freebies. Sign up
Learning how to take and give reports as well as organize your time well in clinical is something that nursing students, new nurses, and experienced nurses all struggle with.
In fact, as a new nurse, my preceptor would make me practice giving her report over and over AND over again until she felt like I was correctly drawing out the information that was most important.
I always thought she was being crazy until one day I realized . . . I was giving a damn good report.
And you know what else . . . I can only think of ONE shift where I got out late. And that was because a patient came in coding right at shift change.
What’s my secret?
A report and brain sheet that works!
To help you with time management we created an enormous database of nursing report and brain sheets by polling thousands of working nurses and asking for the report sheet that worked for them. The key here is that no two nurses are created equal. . . what worked for me might not work for you and vice versa. So we compiled the best brain sheets into a huge FREE resource.
I would suggest downloading this 46-page PDF and trying a few of the sheets out. . . this will be a tremendous tool for you during nursing school and I wouldn’t start without it.
The first two are mine so I am a bit partial. They are the ones I used in nursing school and as a newbie nurse.
You don’t have to get all of those other medical supplies you might one day need, but a good stethoscope is integral to nursing school. You may want to do your research or even ask other nurses you know what they recommend so that you can choose a stethoscope that will serve you well.
Be careful with this one because a lot of times those crappy ones they sell in scrub stores just aren’t gonna cut it. The best ones you can buy are going to be a Littman Cardiac stethoscope . . . they aren’t cheap, and can run over $300. If you are on a budget consider spending at least $70 or so for a decent one that will allow you to actually hear what you need to hear on the clinical floor.
I know that money is tight while in nursing school (I’ve talked about that here) but do yourself a favor and purchase a quality stethoscope before you start school . . . if you don’t you will just end up spending more money once you graduate and that first one will just be a waste of money.
I can’t tell you the number of times we would finish intubating a patient and ask for a stethoscope only to find that it was too weak even to hear lung sounds.
Whoever invented these are brilliant and I owe them at least a round of beers for all the sticky jams they have prevented for me. To define the use of a hemostat would be to limit the capabilities. Although they were created in the sense of helping in surgeries, they can be used for so many things:
The list goes on and sometimes it is just so creative and useful it’s absurd. Can you be a nurse without this item? Yes. But you cannot be an awesome nurse without them, so just grab a pair and save yourself from potential trouble.
These handy buggers are a must. You will need them in both non-emergent as well as emergent situations. But most importantly, when you need them, whether you have them on hand or not will make or break your time management.
They can be used for the child adult-proof medication packets you are trying to open for your patient’s medication pass. That painful weeping wound on your patient’s leg that is wrapped in gauze, you can cut off the gauze to minimize movement of the leg. A patient comes rolling into the ER after a major car accident, well you will be cutting off their lululemon leggings and their eco-friendly organic cotton ‘save the whales’ tee, no matter how expensive because a full visual of any hemorrhage could mean the difference between life or death.
Be prepared with these. Do not be the person who doesn’t have a pair. They are important and can mean life or death for a patient.
This one doesn’t need an explanation. Just choose a small bottle that will fit easily in your pocket. Yes, hospitals will have it everywhere, but you can get a nice cheap bottle that isn’t so sticky and gooey. . .
Purell makes this really cool one that you can put in your pocket or locker and comes out as a foam. The first time I saw this was when my son was a patient in the NICU. I thought it was so cool and much better on your hands.
Like we said above . . . you don’t need to buy one of those “fancy” all-in-one nursing school supply kits . . . I bought one . . . and NEVER USED it.
However, a penlight is a MUST HAVE . . . this helps in neuro assessments and oral assessments.
Sadly, it can be hard to find a great penlight (a problem we are looking to solve). I have seen physicians use the flashlight on the iPhone before and it actually works really well.
Here is a simple but in-depth video that shows how to assess pupil reaction . . . again . . . a complete must-have.
Nursing clinicals are crazy . . . you will be carrying a ton of paperwork and taking a ton of notes. Having a nice clipboard where you can store all of that is important. Check out this clipboard.
Here are some great books, podcasts, and courses to help you learn ALL that material you need to know to make a great nurse!!
This is the MOST undervalued book in nursing education.
My entire nursing school experience changed when I discovered this book. I read the entire thing in one night.
You can pick up the older versions of the book on Amazon for less than $5 HERE and the new edition is less than $30 HERE.
The book really dives into NCLEX® style questions and the WAY you need to look at, read, and interpret the questions. If you have time, I would suggest buying the book before you start nursing school and glancing over it . . . then use it as a reference DURING school.
If you haven’t joined the podcast train yet don’t feel bad, I just started listening like 2 years ago.
I love podcasts for a couple of reasons:
Did you know you don’t need an iPhone or iPod to listen to podcasts? In fact, we have a ton of shows and you can listen on any phone or even on our website . . . how cool is that?
Some of our shows are just a couple of minutes long while others are up to an hour long. Oh . . . and they are all free.
Here is a list of some of our shows:
I have yet to meet anyone who knows everything about every drug: nurse, physician, pharmacist, etc. There is too much to know and too much change to know it all. However, you will need access to as much information as possible and a good drug reference guide will likely be a part of your required texts. If, by chance, it is not you should consider getting one anyway.
Medscape is a free mobile app that has a TON of information. What I use it most for is the pharmacology portion. You can check drugs, and interactions, and even view images of meds.
There isn’t a shift that I don’t pull this out and refer to it.
Access to a solid bank of NCLEX® questions can take you a long way. This way you can take questions as you work your way through your program so that on test day . . . you know what to expect.
Here is a list of a couple of places to get practice questions:
I took so many practice questions while in nursing school. After a while, you start knowing exactly what the questions are going to ask before you even finish reading it.
To help you, we’ve created Nursing Practice Questions (NPQ), which is our bank of over 3,500 NCLEX-style questions. Within NPQ you can sort the questions by category so you can take questions specifically on what you are studying in school at any given time.
Most people think of the medical field as only serious, but it can be very stressful and if you don’t have a sense of humor, you won’t find it easy to survive. Be willing to laugh at yourself and at awkward situations. It will help.
Hmm . . . yes, it’s true “travel” isn’t really something you can HAVE before nursing school but it is something you should do before you start your program. Even if you don’t have the budget or the time to do a big fancy vacation before school starts you should take some time to be with good friends and family before your first day.
Create some memories . . . because once school starts you will be so busy that your “free time” will be greatly reduced and you won’t be able to spend time with loved ones.
If you have these things when you enter nursing school, then you will walk through those doors prepared for anything. And, you will definitely feel better than if you just had a pencil and notebook!
The site that my wife and I use for travel is Airbnb.com . . . we’ve found some awesome places in some incredible towns for a fraction of the cost that other booking sites charge!
This is a no brainer . . . coffee is a major food group to nurses.
Investing in a good coffee maker with a timer is a good way to make sure your daily caffeine ratio is ready before you leave the house and it’s a lot cheaper than buying a cup each morning.
Here is a link to the Keurig coffee maker.
Yeah, yeah, yeah . . . not really NEEDED for nursing school, but trust me, you will run out of time as a nursing student, and not having to think about lunch while still being able to eat healthily will go a long way.
Taking a few minutes at the beginning of the week to prep all your meals ahead of time will save an enormous amount of stress and time later on in the week when “stuff” hits the fan.
Staying motivated and inspired is important when you JUST don’t want to keep going. N is for Nurse by best-selling nurse-author Jon Haws RN CCRN is a full-color ABC book for grown-up nurses, with a powerful message about what it means to “be a nurse”. N is for Nurse looks and feels like a classic picture book. But it’s not for kids, it’s for nurses and nursing students who are proud of being RN.
