Here’s my full list. I phoned it in a little towards the end, but I had fun writing this and I hope it’s a good read. This list and thread was much more fun than I expected from office supplies, thanks Mogri.
1. Disposable scissors
It is a truth widely known that a good nurse always has scissors in their pocket. A smart nurse's scissors will be disposable - sometimes you need to cut something disgusting at short notice, and you don't want to be putting those scissors back in your pocket after that. Essential for opening packaging, removing bandages without having to unwind them, prying the tops off vials, spinning around a finger while walking down corridors, and many other things.
2. Stapler
Specifically plier staplers, the reasonably heavy handheld type. The limb is off, it's in the bag, the bag needs sealing and the specimen form attached. Fold over the edge a few times, and stick some staples through it. Chunk chunk chunk. Satisfying.
3. DeBakey Forceps
Maybe better known to the wider public as tweezers. What, are you picking that up with your fingers? There are many types of forceps - toothed, non-toothed, serrated, smooth, short, long, fine, broad. Gillies, McIndoe, Bonney, Adson, Russian, Ring, Gerald, Bayonet, Packing. As good as any, and perhaps better (which tool is best of course depends on the task at hand), is the DeBakey. Available in a range of lengths and with tips of varying width, they have a pattern of fine teeth that reduce the force required to hold tissue without being rough enough to damage it. The same pattern is widely used on clamps for the temporary occlusion of blood vessels or bowel.
4. Clicky Pen
There's a hole at one end, and a button at the other. Press the button and the nib appears. Press it again and it goes away. Click! Usually there's a hook on the side to help it stay in place in your pocket. Aside from feeling good, this is the best pen for one-handed use. No need to remove the lid or turn the end. Take it out of your pocket, bang the back on something, and start writing.
5. Fingers
It is said that all bleeding stops eventually, and that's true. But sometimes you want to help it stop a little quicker. Sure, a clamp will last longer. A stitch or clip is a permanent solution. Give it a buzz with the electrocautery device. Pour on some peroxide if you're sure it won't cause an embolism or pneumocephalus. The clotting cascade or exsanguination will get you there eventually. In the short term, though, press on it! You can't stick a thumb on the aorta forever, but it might just cover the trip from emergency room to operating room. For smaller bleeds a few minutes of pressure might be all you need. Don't try it on brain tissue, though.
Fingers are also useful for almost everything else.
6. Guillotine
A larger version of this device is highly placed on my top 25 revolution supplies list, but here I'm talking about the one that lets you make straight cuts in paper. Very satisfying, but watch your fingers.
7. Magnifying Glass
Sometimes it is hard to see. A handheld glass makes you feel like a detective, though surgeons more often use spectacle-mounted loupes.
8. Mayo Scissor
There are many types of scissor. If I were a surgeon, I might nominate the ubiquitous Metzenbaum, or the slightly more specialised Tenotomy scissor. But I'm a nurse, and I mostly use the Mayos. Reasonably heavy with blunt tips, they're suitable for cutting sutures and dressings as well as (some) tissue. The trick to making scissors cut (after you've blunted them cutting dressings) is to push with your thumb and pull with your fingers so that the jaws are forced together. If you're holding the scissors in the wrong hand (left hand for righty scissors, right hand for lefty scissors), you gotta reverse the motion. Even if they are blunt, it's a poor worker who blames the tools.
9. Portable Phone (for clarity, I mean a landline with a wireless handset, not a mobile phone)
Communication is a necessary evil, but in the modern age you don't have to be tied to the wall to do it.
10. Label Maker
This is mine, and this is mine, and this is mine. Also, here is where the DeBakeys go, and if you can see this label you need to order more 4-0 nylon, preferably a week ago.
11. Pencil (wood)
While I prefer a pen with a spring retraction mechanism to a plain one, the opposite is true of pencils. Keep it simple. Supposedly the American space program dedicated huge resources to making a pen that would write in space, and the Russians used pencils. I don't know if that's true, and I don't want to risk looking it up and finding out that it's not.
12. Eraser
We all make mistakes. More correctly known as a rubber, but I don't want you to think I'm talking about something else.
13. Display Book
The good thing about these is people can see what you've put on paper, but they have to put at least a little effort in to take the paper out of the sleeve if they want to scribble on it, which seems to deter erroneous "corrections".
14. Hole Punch
Oddly satisfying. A source of confetti.
15. Sharpener
Sharpening is relaxing. Or intensely frustrating when the lead keeps breaking.
16. Computer
Beep beep boop.
17. Lever Arch File
The arch always seems to get out of alignment and start dropping pages, but until then these can hold a lot of paper.
18. Blu Tack
My parents told me off for using sticky tape on the walls when I was a kid.
19. Deaver Retractor
This is a broad flat strip of metal curved to a kind of question mark shape. Stick the big curve in the patient and pull on the other end until the surgeon can see what they're doing. This seems to be the instrument surgeons in M*A*S*H ask for most often.
20. Laminator
Sometimes a piece of paper isn't durable enough.
21. Thumb Tack
22. Paperclip
I hope these two are self explanatory.
23. Pen (with lid)
Not a patch on a clicky pen, but still a pen. Successfully taking off the lid, writing something, and recapping the pen with only one hand free the whole time is satisfying, but losing the lid and subsequently drawing a whole lot of lines near the pocket of my scrub top is the more common experience. Perhaps that's why the scrubs are such a dark colour?
24. Mechanical Pencil
Better than no pencil.
25. Rib spreader
A couple of thick bits of smooth metal with curved ends, mounted on arms attached to a rack and pinion. Make a cut, stick this thing between the ribs, and wind the handle until you have access to the chest. An absolute life-saver in the right circumstances. Unfortunately some can be assembled incorrectly, a costly error when every second counts. I've suggested alterations to some of the manufacturers that would make it impossible to misassemble the instrument. The feedback I got was that these are to be used by people who know how to use them, which shows that even very smart people can say very stupid things if they don't understand the circumstances in which their products are used. Anyways. Learn how to use it before you need to use it, and have a spare in case someone messes it up.
Also: None of the above is medical advice. I'm not a doctor. Don't try to get access to the chest, and don't use peroxide for bleeding.
