School supply shopping is one of my favorite times of the year. It’s one of the pleasures of going to school for an eternity by studying medicine. I love the smell of new notebooks and the feel when I write with new pens and highlighters. The difference with medical school supplies is that you might have to use the tools for the rest of your career, so it is important to get things that are high quality. I know that as a medical student budgeting for this might be hard but if you future patients’ lives depend on it, it would be smart to get the best tools you can.
Each school might be a little different in terms of what you need but for the most part there is a list of items that remain important. It will also depend on your school on whether or not they will provide you with a diagnostic kit of some sort. Also, quite a few schools might supply you with a stethoscope but if they don’t a Littman Classic III tends to be a good quality and relatively cheap option for school. Another thing the school most likely provides you with is a white coat, so you just have to worry about getting fitted and that can be done at your school’s bookstore.
For those of you who just want a complete list here is the uninterrupted list of things you will need for clinical classes in medical school (you may click on the item and it will send you the link to amazon):
- Stethoscope (with separate bell and diaphragm end pieces) $80
- Sphygmomanometer [with adult and pediatric (optional) blood pressure cuffs] $17
Other items you will need:
- Tongue depressors
- Cotton swabs
- Small flexible metric ruler or tape measure
- Small notebook and writing instruments
- Nitrile or latex rubber gloves $9 (for Anatomy lab)
Helpful to have:
( the set in this link is like $15 when expensive scrubs are about $70 per set)
Books:
Other books might be needed but I heard from second year students at my school that the most helpful things are the anatomy atlas and first aid.
I hope you found this list helpful to you on your search for medical school supplies. If you decide to buy these items help me out by using the links in the post, they are affiliated and it would help me out a lot! Also I calculated the cost from Amazon and it is a lot cheaper than buying from my school bookstore (about $500 vs. $300). Let me know if you’d like more posts like this and I promise I will post more about other things, but this is consuming my life at the moment. Good luck!