Besides carrying a bunch of papers, pens and snacks in my white coat pockets, I carry these items! Anyone in any healthcare field will tell you to always always carry a notebook. I carry two, one of which is not pictured. One is to take notes while on rounds, my other notebook (pictured) is a reference notebook. My last IPPE was at Hahnemann in their cardiology/heart transplant rotation and my preceptor there gave the advice to make a notebook for each APPE filled with tidbits of information I've learned. I decided to try it for her IPPE and ended up really loving it. This notebook is filled with descriptions of disease states I've learned along the way, drug information questions I've had to answer, and diagrams of organ functions (kidney, heart, etc.). It's extremely helpful as a reference for when I need a quick reminder of small details I may have forgotten.

I also carry one of these handy CDC immunization schedules with me. Vaccines are very important to my patients but they can also be very dangerous to transplant patients. My patients cannot receive live vaccinations. Live vaccines consistent of the actual virus toned down so they don't have infective potential in our non-immunosuppressed individuals. Transplant patients are immunosuppressed, meaning they don't have an active immune system, and any sort of virus introduction could have horrible consequences for them. We suppress the immune system of these patients to avoid our patient's immune systems from attacking their new organ. This unfortunately also leaves them susceptible to other infections like ones that the shingles vaccine, a live vaccine, could introduce to them. Instead we suggest that they receive all inactivated vaccines as suggested by the CDC (flu, pneumonococcal, HPV) to prevent them from contracting any of these diseases, while also minimizing the risk introduced to them. It is so important that transplant patients do everything they can to prevent infection, so thats why we suggest that they get their inactivated vaccines, wash their hands, and avoid eating raw/unwashed foods! So, this schedule is important and helps me to keep the time spans right so I know when to suggest that they look into getting these life saving prevention measures!