Vent: "I should warn you, I'm a tough stick..."

floridanurse1983 · Oct 18, 2011

I think the point is how many times you hear it. I can not tell you how irritating that can be. My BIGGEST pet peeve is not even based in nursing. It was when I was a cashier. Everytime I marked the bill with a counterfit marker, customer always said something like "Careful, I just made that haha." UUUGH!

Hearing anything over and over gets old after enough times. Totally with you on that and I don't think its wrong to feel that way as long as you don't make your feelings known to the pt.

CapeCodMermaid, RN · Oct 18, 2011

I used to keep quiet when I had to have an IV. I do have bad veins mostly from chemotherapy. One ER nurse hollered at me because she couldn't get an IV started. The anesthesiologist couldn't start an IV. I asked him to call an IV nurse and he hollered at me. So forgive me for letting you know before you try to stick me and blow the one good vein I have. I know which vein works the best and what gauge needle to use. I'm not trying to do your job, I'm trying to save my veins.

PS. I have a tattoo and it hurt less getting that than the last three times someone tried to start an IV.

kenyacka · Oct 18, 2011

I would take it as a compliment. I always tell nurses that I'm a tough stick because I am. I also am much, much easier to get on my right arm... yet half of them will still do it on my left arm because the vein looks easier to get. Yet, they always end up on my right arm lol. I took a phlebotomy course and got stuck at least twice a week.... trust me, I'M A TOUGH STICK! lol

gymnut · Oct 18, 2011

This reminds me when I first started out as a PCA and this young guy came up to our floor after being in the ER for several hours. I saw a whole laundry list of blood work print out and asked his nurse why it wasn't done in the ER. She said because he was a really hard stick and they couldn't get him (she hadn't been in to see him yet). So I go in there with the blood work tote and this kid's face drops.

He begins to go on this rant about how they stuck him so many times in the ER and all this other stuff. I was sacred because I only drew blood a handful of times before but figured I needed to try 'hard sticks' eventually.

This kid had veins you could drive a truck through. I didn't even really need to tie the tourniquet tight because they popped up beautifully. He had stick marks all over him and I nailed it first try and every time after that with zero issues.

I still to this day have no idea what they were trying to stick on that kid that they couldn't get anything.

Always_Learning, BSN, RN · Oct 18, 2011

lol....
I try two times and hit them with an I/O before they get too fussy.
By the time they've seen the Black n Decker cordless drill it's in...
(3 words though: lidocaine, lidocaine, lidocaine)

LMAO! :yeah:

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Oct 18, 2011

i just wish i could start an iv with confidence. lately, i haven't been able to stick anything. i am a fairly new nurse and always try, but i am thinking i will never get it.

you will !!!! :)

i'd been doing ivs for 17 years when i started working pediatrics (as it's own floor- i'd had pedi patients on the floors in a smaller hospital, but nobody under 30 days). i felt like a total dingleberry when it came to doing ivs. and i was someone who was called to other floors to stick people :up: it took me f o r e v e r (or so it seemed) to finally get a 24g into the thumb of a 6# baby, in the dark, with a co-worker holding the arm and flashlight under it to "light up" the vein. i was so relieved

xtxrn, ASN, RN · Oct 18, 2011

Come on over to Firefox, we have a built-in spell check! Please, just don't call them "tats." Ugh.
I got in trouble for doing a boob IV on a true "hard stick" when I was a tech -- we were only supposed to place IVs in extremities. I told my NM (with a straight face) that the mammary area in question was large enough to, in fact, be an extremity. She just about fell over laughing.

:yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah:

noahsmama · Oct 18, 2011

Actually, it's spelled tattooed.

Darn! I was trying so hard to make sure I put two t's in it that I forgot to make sure I put two o's in it. I had to look real hard to see how what you wrote was different than what I wrote.

So, I guess this thread has established two things: 1) Lots of people think they're a hard stick when they're actually not and, 2) lots of people think they can spell when actually they can't. :lol2:

allnurses Guide · Oct 19, 2011

This reminds me when I first started out as a PCA and this young guy came up to our floor after being in the ER for several hours. I saw a whole laundry list of blood work print out and asked his nurse why it wasn't done in the ER. She said because he was a really hard stick and they couldn't get him (she hadn't been in to see him yet). So I go in there with the blood work tote and this kid's face drops.
He begins to go on this rant about how they stuck him so many times in the ER and all this other stuff. I was sacred because I only drew blood a handful of times before but figured I needed to try 'hard sticks' eventually.
This kid had veins you could drive a truck through. I didn't even really need to tie the tourniquet tight because they popped up beautifully. He had stick marks all over him and I nailed it first try and every time after that with zero issues.
I still to this day have no idea what they were trying to stick on that kid that they couldn't get anything.

Hmm, maybe being sacred had something to do with it? lol:lol2:

Seriously, they might have been trying a place an IV with an angiocath, rather than a butterfly for just a draw. Sometimes those huge ones roll a lot with a bigger needle, or have so much pressure with a tight tourniquet they blow. But then, I wasn't there, so who knows?

Editorial Team / Moderator · Oct 19, 2011

So, I guess this thread has established two things: 1) Lots of people think they're a hard stick when they're actually not and, 2) lots of people think they can spell when actually they can't.

Great summary!

heartflutter, ADN, BSN · Oct 21, 2011

My wife (a phlebotomist) always says, "There's no such thing as a tough stick, just a crappy sticker!"

AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN · Oct 21, 2011

As the one the med assistant calls when either she or my OM can't get blood, I hear it every blessed day that I work. And, about 90% of the time, I get it, And sometimes in the dangedest places.

I did learn to stop saying "Well, there's a nice, juicy one!" and start saying "You have garden-hosers." after I made our drug screener gag a dozen times or more. Poor girl, she did NOT like blood.

That being said, I have one good site for blood in me. And about half the time, no one listens. 5 sticks later, they do. Once, I snatched the needle and drew it myself. I should have sold tickets to that...had the entire office gaping at me.

Oh, and the threat with the neck? Works like a charm. I'm glad someone mentioned that!