Supplies and Car Stock
What to keep in the car, who to tell when something runs low, and asking for help with a treatment you have not done before.
Carry car stock
Keep enough in the car to perform the cares you have orders for, including:
- Basic wound supplies
- Blood draw equipment
- Catheter supplies
- Whatever else your current caseload needs
Check it against tomorrow's schedule rather than restocking only when you run out. A patient whose dressing change you cannot complete becomes a second trip.
Store the bag properly — see Proper Bag Technique for how supplies and the bag travel and where the clean and dirty compartments go.
When something runs low
If you take the last of anything, or notice a supply running low, tell the supply coordinator in the office. They order all supplies.
Say something when you take the last one — not when you next need one and it is gone. The person after you is working from the same stock.
Treatments you have not done before
Unna boot, 2- or 4-layer compression, wound VAC, anything else you have not performed recently:
Ask. Someone will be sent to assist or teach you.
This is the expectation, not a favour. Working out an unfamiliar treatment on a patient is how patients get hurt and how clinicians end up in an incident report. The agency's position is plain: we help each other, and the patient's interest comes first.
Get the competency signed off while you are at it — see Initial Competency Checklist (RN / LPN).