PACK IT ALL How much do you carry to handle the day's work?

An OR nurse sometimes ends up being the beast of burden, but she is always a pack mule. We carry a ton of stuff in our pockets to make the job easier. I've thought about wearing a contractor-style utility belt, but instead wear 2 jackets, which gives me 4 pockets plus the 1 each in the scrub top and pants. Just be careful: This practical hoarding can easily turn into PTSD (Pocket-Toting Stuff Dysfunction) or at the very least pull down your trousers if you don't tie the drawstring tight. Here's some of what I have on hand at all times.

• Scissors. Early on in my career, I learned that a good nurse always has scissors in her pocket, though I have one co-worker who carries a box-cutter. It can do a lot of things that scissors can't, but I think I'll avoid packing one. Too big of a temptation to open more than just boxes.
• Pens. Best to carry a pair and a spare, and also Sharpie markers for specimen cups. I tend to set pens down and walk away from them while working a room. Or someone borrows one, "just for a second," and you know it's walking away on its own. Maybe I should chain them to me, like at the bank.
• Dry-erase marker. Whiteboards are incredibly useful for totaling up a case's details. But the marker is almost always missing or dried up, and getting a new one requires jumping through materials management's hoops. So I bring my own: and no, you can't borrow it. Don't even look at my dry-erase marker.
• Gown tie cards. I always carry a pocket notebook, but gown tie cards are also great for note-taking. I turn the scrubbed-in folks around, pull off the cards and stuff them in my pockets. I'll use them for supply room shopping lists, remembering residents' and students' names, or posting SOS messages in the window. During long cases, I've even thought about making them into playing cards for a game of solitaire.

• Hand sanitizer. I don't care how many times a day I wash my hands, I'm an antibacterial maniac. Is my skin dry? Yep, it looks like the Declaration of Independence. But it's clean.
• Silk tape. It's the duct tape of the OR. If I need a piece of equipment to stay together until I can replace it, the silk tape (the wider, the better) comes out. There's no problem it can't fix. I've even thought about using it on my mouth in certain situations.
• Mastisol. It smells good and comes in neat little ampules. It's a liquid adhesive, but it comes in handy should you encounter an odiferous wound. Pop that baby, swipe it on your mask and a stinking mess is "Mastisolized."
• Schedule. Some places don't have their schedule on a big-screen monitor, which is unfortunate. When the schedule's on paper, folded up in your pocket, you can't really know for sure who's finished a case early and hiding out, so you can't page them to your room for help.
• Smartphone. Calling, texting and surfing are no-no's in the OR, but it's helpful for checking spelling, translating Spanish and (most importantly) providing music. With some surgeons, an OR without tunes is a jungle with a lot of growling. Pull up a music streaming service online, put the phone into a suction canister for volume and you've got an instant sound system.
• Pacifier. You know, the baby kind, in case the music doesn't work. I used to carry one around, and when "someone in the OR" was behaving like a spoiled brat, I'd hang it outside the OR door, so everyone passing would know who needed a time-out or a spanking.