It is that time of year to go back to school! Excited?! Feeling a bit overwhelmed? We know it can be hectic during the first few weeks of school. The stress of figuring out your new schedule,  late nights of studying, and of course getting all of your books, medical scrubs and supplies without breaking your budget. Well Lydia's is here to help!

I have put together seven essential items you will need for school for LESS than $100.
Check out what I picked out!

1)  Lydia's Red Tag V-neck Unisex Scrub Top Price: Get two for $9.98

This unisex nursing scrubs top has one divided chest pocket for pencil, set-in sleeves and a 28" length.

2)  Lydia's Red Tag Unisex Drawstring Pant Price: Get two for 11.98

This unisex scrub pant has one back pocket and a matching drawcord with a 30 1/2" inseam.

3) Clinical I Stethoscope Price: $39.99

This stethoscope has a a stainless steel chestpiece and stainless steel binaurals that incorporates the most effective sound conducting metal available. It includes two sizes of soft color matched eartips that seal out extraneous noise.

4) Adult Nylon Sphygmomanometer Price: $24.99

This spygmomanometer features a durable nylon cuff with index and Range markings. Also included is heavy duty vulcanized bladder, standard inflation blub and a precision calibrated manometer gauge.

5) Pocketlite Price: $4.99

This replaceable battery penlight is an essential to keep on hand.

6) Essential Tote Bag Price: $4.99

This tote features one main section with inside pockets and is great to carry your books and supplies. It also comes in fabulous color choices!

7) Bandage Scissors Price: $2.99

These 5.5 inch bandage scissors are stainless steel and are at an ubeatable price.

So..lets see what all of this adds up to!

• 2 scrub tops-$9.98
• 2 scrub bottoms-$11.98
• 1 Stethoscope-$39.99
• 1 Sphygmomanometer-$24.99
• 1 Pen Light-$4.99
• 1 bandage scissors-$2.99
• 1 essential tote bag-$4.99

Grand total: $99.91

Our team at Lydia's would like to wish you the best of luck going back to school!!

Don't forget to sign up for our email promotions to receive discounts on hospital scrubs and medical supplies as well as coupons to use throughout the school year!

So I got a sale coupon from Lydia's a few days ago and it was very timely. I think I'm going to need to order some new scrubs. Not because mine are too old or worn out, it's because they're getting a little too tight. I should probably admit that as I type this, I am eating straight out of a bag of chocolate chips.

Nine months back, I gave birth to almost an 11 pound baby boy, and my body has not been the same since! And I turned 31, which some say the older you get, the harder it is to lose. But I started to wonder if some of it has to do with the line of work I do...

If you're like me, you probably work shifts that are 12 - plus hours long. You may not get many opportunities during that time to take a break, and many times clock out "no lunch." And if you are one of the lucky ones who gets to sneak away, you might have a hospital cafeteria whose menu makes some fast food restaurants look like healthy choices. Or maybe you're one of those night shift folks, I used to be one of you. You'll pretty much do whatever it takes to stay awake, and it might require lots of caffeinated soda and chocolate candy bars.

I know some workplaces are making changes to improve the health of their employees. For example, our cafeteria no longer serves foods that are fried on Fridays. I'm not going to tell you what the staff actually thinks about it, though.

I remember a while back, an acquaintance said something about nurses needing to practice what they preach. I said, "What do you mean?" And she said, "Well, there are a lot of overweight nurses out there...don't nurses go around telling people they need to eat healthy?" She may be kind of right, but I think there are lots of reasons for this phenomenon.

I just did a simple internet search using the terms "Obesity and nursing" and got quite a few research articles from real sources. One even said that out of a sample of several thousand nurses surveyed, 54% were obese or overweight. That's pretty significant. And I do wonder what kind of message it sends to the population of people who we're teaching to be healthy.

I'm not writing about this topic to make people feel bad about themselves, because I am dealing with this problem myself! I want to hear from other nurses about some tips! What do you do to eat healthy on the job? How do you work exercise in to your routine when you're spending a good portion of your waking hours at work? You'll have to be particularly convincing, because I choose sleep over exercising after a long day on the hospital floor.

And on a personal note, what nursing scrubs have you found to be flattering for gals in my situation??

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I’m not one to pay attention to rumors in the workplace until they have been confirmed, but the scuttlebutt at my institution is that our Chief Nursing Officer would like to see all nursing staff to begin wearing all-white uniforms. I’ve heard that one of the reasons behind this is that there is too much confusion from patients about who’s who among hospital employees. Nurse techs, unit secretaries, and even housekeepers all wear nursing-type scrubs, and sometimes the people we are serving don’t actually know which of the people who are coming in and out of their rooms is their nurse.

I’m conflicted about this--for one, I don’t particularly want to go out and buy an entire new work wardrobe. I just had to do this recently when I went from an office setting back to bedside nursing. Secondly, I know there are some folks who take comfort in seeing a nurse wearing whites: to them, it might seem more professional or it might fit more with what their vision of how a nurse should look BUT  there are also those people who truly have “white coat syndrome” and the sight of someone coming at them dressed head to toe in white could make their blood pressure skyrocket!

Lastly, I think one of the main reasons I am reluctant is the whole practicality issue. How is it going to look if we do move in this direction? As neat as a freshly pressed white uniform might look in a photograph, it might not look the same in real life. I’m 31, and I think a lot of people my age and younger don’t own an iron nor do they care to buy one, and I’m not sure how it would look if someone didn’t wear wrinkle-free whites. There is always that argument about showing stains, too. There are at least seven bodily fluids that OSHA recognizes, I think, and I’m pretty sure most of them are not clear. Although, I think in my years of bedside nursing I’ve only had to change my scrubs at work two or three times due to getting emesis or urine on my shoe…but I bet that number would shoot up dramatically if I started wearing all white. It’s just the way that sort of thing goes. And then there are those things that maybe administrators who are, shall we say, out of touch with how things actually work out on nursing units might not have thought about: those nurses who wear undergarments that may not look (ahem) appropriate under white slacks. I’m not saying people do it on purpose. Maybe they forgot they were wearing hot pink underwear when they put on their nursing pants at 5:30 in the morning after being exhausted from a 13-14 hour shift the day before!

I go back and forth. I know it can look awfully nice, and everyone identifies white uniforms with nurses. When I graduated nursing school, I wore a white scrub dress for my pinning ceremony. And me being a frugal, no-nonsense kind of gal, I thought I should at least get some more use out of the thing. I didn’t want it to be like a bridesmaid dress that you spend tons of money on, only to hang in the back of a closet for decades. I wore it to work a few times, and got lots of compliments…particularly from elderly gentlemen, who said it was nice to see nurses still dress like they did in the old days. Of course after spending a 12 hour shift climbing up on beds to pull people over from a stretcher, or kneeling down to empty a catheter, I said “That’s the end of THAT!” So now, it is folded up in a box in my closet. And two kids later, I wish I could still fit into it…maybe someday.

At the end of the day, I’m still ambivalent about how I feel about the idea of wearing all white scrubs. In college, I changed my major about 4 times before becoming a nurse. The first of those 4 was art education. I like to express my creativity and individuality, and being forced to wear a certain color seems like kind of a bummer…I guess that’s why they call them “uniforms,” though. I know we should do what’s best for the patient. But it’s still unclear to me whether this is really best or not.

I’m curious about what other nurses think: have you done this at your institution? If you were told you had to wear all white, all the time, would you like it? Or not?

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• Do not immerse your stethoscope in any liquid or subject it to any sterilization process. If disinfection is required, the stethoscope may be wiped with a 70% isopropyl alcohol solution
• Keep your stethoscope away from extreme heat, cold, solvents and oils
• Ear tips may be removed from the ear tubes for thorough cleaning
• Before and after every shift, wipe down the stethoscope, starting at the earpieces (which helps prevent the spread of ear infections among the staff), continuing down the tubing, and ending around the bell and diaphragm. Take the diaphragm apart to remove dust, lint, or debris and clean it well before reassembling it.

• Remove ink stains – peroxide
• Armor All your stethoscope to remove scuffs
• Keep the box/packaging it comes in when storing it in your backpack or work tote keep.
• You don't want to use anything abrasive to clean a stethoscope because it will end up looking worse. Wiping it with a disinfectant will get the marks off as well as anything.
• After trying on your scrubs, wash them before wearing them. This will prevent any dye rubbing off on your tubing when wearing it around your neck or storing it in your pocket.
• You want to be careful when you clean the tubing on your stethoscope. Too many applications of alcohol or Cavicide will cause it to stiffen and crack. Every once use a tire dressing. It's meant to keep rubber tires supple and lubricated and it works just dandy on stethoscope tubing too. Just make sure you buff off the excess.
• Use disposable covers. Available in various styles, the most useful covers are designed for single use. They're made of thin plastic, which prevents crackling sounds. Most covers protect the bell and diaphragm and the tubing leading to the stethoscope's bifurcation. Ask your infection control coordinator about these covers.

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