We all dream of making our million. After many years of bedside nursing here is my list of things I would like to invent to make a nurse’s life easier and to make my million.

1. The portable CAT scan: A small machine hovers the patient’s bed and in a matter of minutes a full body scan is complete.  Don’t you just hate those road trips to CAT scan with critically ill patients? Think of it… Smashing your toe, and straining your back as you push the thousand pound bed down the hallway to radiology would be only a bad memory. Untangling tubes, wires and transducers for hours following a test, but a distant nightmare. And crazy codes in small dark rooms in the radiology department a never –event!

2. Auto turn, wash and dry. A bed that automatically turns washes and dries patients at designated periods throughout the day would save a lot of time and ensure cleanliness, mobility and adequate skin care.

3. Anxiolytic ventilation: A ventilation system set to disperse just a small amount of Ativan or Versed into the room for those tremendously anxious family members, demanding patients and nasty physicians. Think of how calm your life would be.

4. Dictation sound system: Forget inputting data into a computer. I want someone or something to record my assessments and interventions and my patient’s responses as they happen. No more writing, or typing , or struggling to remember what happened hours later when I finally have time to document—imagine cameras, computers and monitors recording  the data as I go!

5. “Beam me up”: Teleportation of physicians. Have you ever tried to get a physician to come see a patient and no matter your concerns the physician refused to come in? With this handy invention a nurse could beam a physician in to a room for emergent situation and out of a patient room when no longer needed or tolerated. 

   What’s on your dream list?