Hey Everyone!
I just finished midterms for this semester so I thought I
would share what I keep in my school bag when I head off to campus. I am in a
part time BSN-DNP program, which is a total of 4 years long. I started in 2014
so am a little over halfway done with my program (yay!). The way my program is
set up I will be sitting for the ANCC board exam for Family Nurse Practitioners
this upcoming summer, and will spend the remaining academic year working on my doctoral
project prior to graduating with my DNP degree.
This semester I am taking my pediatrics didactic class, and
doing a high risk primary care clinical as well as a women’s health clinical.
I will be doing a “what’s in my clinical bag” post in the
near future as well!
Let’s get started!
Backpack
In undergrad I was a huge fan of the tote
bag. I used to love using my Longchamp bag or Vera Bradley totes to bring my
books to and from class. Now, in my old age, heavy tote bags really do a number
on my back. I have had lower back issues for about 10 years and I used to just
suffer through it for the sake of fashion, but now I cant anymore, haha.
Now I have been using a solid black North Face Jester Backpack. It is roomy
and comfortable on my back. Because I live in New England, however, I feel like
everyone has this bag, but I did tie a pink ribbon on the top to jazz it up a
little bit!
Pencil Case
The pencil case I use is an old Ipsy makeup
bag that I got when I used to have the subscription. I am a huge sucker for
good pens. Currently I have been loving the Papermate Ink Joy gel 0.7 pens. They come in a variety of colors and are so smooth
and fun to write with. They are a bit pricey but you can find them cheaper and
in smaller packages on Amazon.
Highlighters
One thing I must buy for myself at the
beginning of every semester is a new package of Sharpie Retractable Highlighters. I love these lil guys and the
package they come in. I am a huge highlighter junkie and use them in both my
notes and my planner religiously. These highlighters never smudge or bleed
through papers and last me through the entire semester (plus some!).
Planner
I love my planner. It sometimes resides in my
backpack, sometimes in my purse, but it is always with me. I use the Lilly Pulitzer Medium Size Agenda. I
have been using Lilly Pulitzer agendas since undergrad and I love them. I like
the monthly view they have and then the subsequent weekly pages where I can
make to do lists, agendas and write down important assignments, etc. Plus, the
stickers in the front allow me to be creative when decorating my monthly view.
I also color coordinate my highlighter colors, I use yellow for school, blue
for work, and pink for personal.
APA book
I always keep my APA book in my bag because,
despite going on 7 years of medical related schooling, I still have to look up
how to cite EVERYTHING. I don’t know why this doesn’t stick in my head but I
literally use this book every time I am writing something that needs citations
(which is basically everything).
Textbook
This semester, as I said, I am taking
pediatric primary care. I know absolutely nothing for peds (I work in an adult
MICU as an RN and have since I graduated undergrad..), so this textbook has
been my lifeline.
Laptop
I love apple products. Last year for my
birthday I treated myself to the new Macbook 12 in. in Gold. I love it. It is so small, lightweight and perfect for what
I use it for which is web surfing, netflix and word processor. It is definitely
not a heavy duty device that would be able to do major video editing or
processing and gaming, but I definitely don’t use it for that. Other complaints
with this computer is that there is no USB port, instead there is one USB-C
port, which can be used for a variety of different purposes if you have the
right adaptors. However, 1 year into using this computer and I have never even
needed to buy an adaptor let alone fee like I was missing out on anything due
to my lack of USB. I have a lot of apple products though so I am able to easily
connect all my devices through the cloud.
Ipad
I never realized how much I needed an iPad
until I bought one. I have the Ipad Mini 4 in Gold. I use my iPad at school for when I either want to look up
something quick without taking out my whole computer, or sometimes, if I know I
wont be needing to actually type anything at school that day I wont even bring
my laptop and just use my iPad to look stuff up, etc. My favorite part of
having both a Macbook and an iPad is that I save all my documents into my cloud
so I can pull up papers and study guides on any device!
Luna Bar
I am definitely someone who gets hangry,
especially if I am already stressed to begin with. Luckily there are a lot of
places to get food if I am spending a long day at campus, however, I definitely
need to have a snack super close by, just in case. The S’mores Luna Bar is my favorite. I am allergic to nuts so I can’t
eat a lot of bars but this one is nut free, so yummy and really filling!
Water bottle
I take my Nalgene bottle with me everywhere. It is 1L big so I try to fill it up and drink at
least 2 of them a day. Since doing this, I have noticed benefits to both my
health and my wallet (even though now I frequent the bathroom… thanks little
bladder syndrome..). This seems like such an easy fix to making sure you stay
hydrated, but I actually go the idea to take a Nalgene with me from one of my
best friends from undergrad. I bought the exact same one as her and love
decorating it with stickers and even a monogram sticker I bought from Etsy.com!
Whew, this was a long post!!
Thanks for reading my essentials that I keep in my school
bag! Let me know what essentials you take with you to prepare for a long day of
hitting the books!!
Xoxo, Bethany
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