Hi there.

I am about to go into my final year of nursing at university and I've learnt a lot of over the past two years. I've learnt how to be strong in difficult situations, I've learnt that I need to believe in myself... but mostly, I've learnt that I am incredibly unprepared. Oh, and I am also far too trusting with my pens. In this post, I'll be discussing five essential items that I would recommend to any newbie-student nurse!

Every nurse needs a decent fob watch. A fob watch is a small watch that is pinned to the front of your uniform pocket. They're particularly important to keep track of time, keeping your organising... oh, and also, for observations. I bought a pink, silicone watch from Amazon. It's also so easy to wipe clean, if anything gross spills on it!

When I first started the course, I was fresh out of school and incredibly inexperienced. The student edition of the Royal Marsden is the only book that I would recommend for you to buy. I would especially recommend it to those who are inexperienced in a clinical setting. The book is huge, so keep it at home, but it truly is a nursing guide for dummies. It tells you everything from how to wash your hands properly to inserting a laryngeal tube. In my first year, I used this book for everything! I used it to help me with essays and within clinical practice, and I especially love the diagrams and pictures of essential equipment. It's £23.99 but it's totally worth it. Buy it from Amazon NOW!

I know it sounds simple, but at the start of my course I had about one hundred pairs of black socks, and today I have about two pairs left! Buy the cheapest ones in your local supermarket, because you will lose them everywhere! And always carry a spare pair with you, in case you end up spilling something suspicious on them...

A four colour Bic pen is one the biggest recommendations for going into any healthcare course. The reason that they are so good, is that they are so useful when adding notes to paper handovers. They help you to keep organised, and I like to do a 'traffic light system' on my handovers. Red for highlighting important information, blue for ongoing assessments and green for hospital discharge tasks that need completed. Then I use the black ink for filling in paperwork. I find that using these pens keep me super organised and helps me to prioritise important tasks. Buy them from Amazon NOW!

Whether it is a tiny diary or a full scale weekly-planner, you need something to keep you organised! The amount of times where I have had to cancel plans because I have had placement or university is ridiculous! I wish I had invested in a decent planner earlier in my course, particularly when deadlines were approaching. Luckily, you can find a ton of cute planners on Amazon, which range between £5-£15.

Thank you so much for reading this post. When I started my course, I wish someone would have been there to tell me what to spend my money on, so I hope this was helpful!

XO Zoe