What’s In My Locker?

Hello MedHatters!

This week I wanted to share what I had kept in my locker as a first year. I will go over what was super useful (to me), what I would have replaced, and what I wish I would have had. Hopefully this helps guide you if you plan to use your locker as a first year student!

Now, I know most schools don’t have assigned lockers. On the KC campus, students have access to lockers that they can sign out. They need to bring their own locks and at the end of the year have to give up the locker. And once there are no more, you can’t get a locker. Since there are so many students on the KC campus (its not just medical students on that campus), getting a locker at any other time after the very beginning of the school year can be hard. At some schools you don’t have a designated space. In Joplin, we are a small enough campus that we all have designated lockers assigned to us. Each student is assigned one and encouraged to use it so our stuff isn’t all over the place. They come with locks and are given to you during orientation. It is yours for the first 2 years.

Currently, we have enough lockers that each club also gets a locker. So I have 2: my personal one and one for MAOPS (I’m on the board for this club). I’m sure once more students are on campus they will switch to not having club lockers. But I’m not sure how long that will take.

And no. Not everyone uses their locker. So don’t feel obligated to really use yours!

What I Had in My locker:

• A blanket. I got a lot of flack for this at first. But you know what? It gets really cold on campus no matter what time of year it is. And I’m the type of person that is always cold (or gets cold easily). If I have to be here for class or to study, I want to be warm.
• Lots of slipper socks. I have many pairs. It’s nice to keep my feet warm and I don’t have to wear shoes.
• Gallon zipper bags. This was helpful for anatomy. Either to put my dirty/smelly scrubs in so it wouldn’t stink up my locker or to put my iPad in to take into lab with me! Definitely a must as a first year student for anatomy if you plan to bring your iPad into the lab.
• Usually an anatomy atlas. I have Dr. Olinger’s pictured because it is easier to carry around, but I believe Netter’s stayed in my locker.
• Spray/lotion. I would use this to help mask the awful dead body smell if I couldn’t go home and shower right away.
• My “tool” bag. This had all the instruments that were “required” for first years. Honestly I did not need all of these… But I kept them in a bag in my locker since I needed to use most of them while on campus.

For the blanket and slipper socks, I would periodically take them home and wash them and bring them back. I did a lot of walking around in those socks while on campus and they did get dirty somewhat fast since I used them so often. But since I’ve dedicated those items to just use at school, its not like I was using them in my home. But don’t worry; they definitely were washed many times during the year!

What I had that I would Change:

• I originally had my white coat in my locker. But turns out there wasn’t a ton of space for this. Also, I have a bottom locker. There were definitely times where I would hear people from top lockers spilling coffee, juice, energy drinks, etc and it would leak down to the bottom locker. Not a big deal most of the time, but I didn’t want that happening to my white coat.
• I also originally had coffee pods in my locker. This is a great idea, except I got really cheap and nasty Walmart ones and turns out I didn’t really drink them because they were gross. Definitely recommend getting slightly better quality ones (we have 2 Keurigs on campus). OR some friends had instant coffee in their locker.
• Sometimes I would put a spare change of clothes in my locker. I stopped doing that though simply because I live less than 5 minutes away from campus and could easily go home and shower or change and come back. For students who plan to spend longer days here, it may be a good idea to keep an extra pair of scrubs or extra clothes to change into.

What i wish i had:

• Ibuprofen. Oh lord I needed this more often than I can remember. I would always tell myself to put some in my locker and then forget. Luckily there was always a classmate on campus that had a bottle of it.
• Snacks. This is another one I wish I had. Sometimes I would just want something salty and snacky and wouldn’t have any. Some classmates had large bulk bins of snacks like this in their locker.

And that is basically it. Now, I spent a lot of time on campus. I mean A LOT. But if you aren’t one to really spend time on campus, then you probably don’t need to have this much stuff in your locker.  E really only kept his tools/instruments in his locker. Sometimes he left his white coat. But really he just needed a place for his stuff during anatomy lab.

Bonus! What i kept in my car:

Yup, I went there.

I usually kept an extra jacket in my car. Mostly because I knew I would be cold during lectures or while studying even if it was balls hot outside. So I would just keep it in there to grab on my way into campus or if I needed to run out and grab it.

I also kept my Moore’s book in my car. Why? Well that thing is huge. And since we needed it for most anatomy courses (or at least parts of that book) I wanted to have it on hand. What if I needed it on campus and it was at home? What if I needed it at home and I kept it in my locker? You see my dilemma? So I kept it in my car. That way I could run out and grab it if I needed it.

Occasionally my blanket would hangout in my car if I would have it in class and didn’t want to drag it back into my locker before leaving. But those were the two main things that I kept in my car during first year.

Double bonus! what do i actually need for the instruments?

Now, I’m sure the school won’t be happy with me saying this. But like, you really don’t actually use all those tools. There will be third years who sell them at much cheaper but still somewhat pricy because most of those instruments are new.

Some people get much cheaper versions off of Amazon.

A lot of students just used other student’s stuff because they didn’t bother to buy it.

And then you have people like me that bought the tools but really didn’t use most of them (at least for first year).

• Stethoscope: Yes. Yes you need this. You will use this the most. I had a cheaper one that an ex left me (he was an EMT for awhile) and I somewhat wish I would have gotten a slightly better one. But, I didn’t want to spend anymore money.
• Reflex hammer: Yes you do use this. If you are going to buy this, get the rubber one, not the plastic one. I promise it will be less painful given the amount of times you practice taking reflexes with the rubber one. BUT! They do provide this one during your SP encounters. You may not be provided this during score 1 in second year though.
• BP cuffs: Um, kinda. I know you need this more for second year for score 1. We needed it to practice on one another before our vital signs competency in first year and that is basically it. You get tested on the mannikins that have an attached BP cuff for this competency. So, you don’t all need to buy one since you are just using it for practice in first year. Also, all the rooms in Joplin have BP cuffs for your SP’s.
• Otoscope: Honestly we just used this during one or two labs. We have attached ones in the SP rooms to use. Pretty sure you need it for second year though for score 1, but first year we didn’t do much with it.
• Ophthalmoscope. Same thing. we just used it during labs. All the SP rooms have one in Joplin. Will likely need it for score 1 in second year.
• Eye chart: Only used this during neuro lab and the first instrument lab in first year. They provided it during SP’s. Not sure if this is needed in second year? Will let you know.
• Tuning fork: Same thing. Only used it during those 2 labs like the eye chart. It was provided during SP’s. Not sure if we need this in second year yet.
• Otoscopy bulb: WE DID NOT USE THIS ONCE. Not at all. Really not sure why we needed to buy this. Maybe we will use it in score 1 but my god I’m not even sure we used it in the intro to instrument lab.

And I think that’s it for the instruments. A lot of what is on your list you will be expected to have for score 1 in second year (like I keep repeating). Even then, I’m not sure how much you will use. But sometimes when you do mass clinics like that you aren’t all doing it at the same time. So you may get away with just borrowing each other’s stuff OR borrowing from a first year below you.

So, you decide if it is worth buying all of this in your first year. You may get away with not needing it much and can borrow from other students. By the time you get to 3rd and 4th year, all of this will be provided by your clinics.

Hope this was helpful. Cheers!