Do you start your own IVs?

[FireStarterRN]

Do you start IVs where you work? I'm doing a travel contract at a hospital that has IV therapy and most nurses don't start IVs there. I had to start a couple of IVs there other day for other nurses because IV therapy was too busy.

I guess if you work in a place with IV therapy, you just don't start IVs. I'll include a poll with this thread.

[Boston-RN, RN]

Both....We have IV therapy but they're usually busy, I LOVE inserting IV's. If I cannot see or feel a vein I call the IV team because I'm not mean but otherwise I always tell the other nurses on the floor to let me know and I'll at least take a peek. We do our own central line dressing/cap changes, we remove central lines (except PICC's), we deaccess portacaths and where I used to work we accessed them but where I am now that's the job of the IV team.

[Lorie P.]

Used to start all my own IV's and would be the one my co-workers would get if they couldn't or had a hard stick.

Also have a PICC team but they only do PICC's.

Now that I am a private duty nurse I don't don't have to.

[teletilly]

We start all of our own iv's, If pt's need a PICC, an agency from Duke University travels to Podunck to insert the PICC...have asked to be trained in Picc insertion but NOOOOOO....hmmm would that be more cost effective ?? Of course it would, that's why the administration will have no part of training anyone in-house...

We also do our own venipunctures for ordered labwork... all of that happened when the "great restructuring of nursing " came about in the 1990's...at least respiratory therapy is now doing its job...up until 4 years ago,nursing was responsible for neb treatments, EKG"S, o2 setups...they weren't happy, we weren't happy..eventually the powers that be saw the need for RT to be RT...

[november17, ASN, RN]

heck yeah i start my own. when you're hot, you can toss iv's in from across the hallway.. and when you're not.. :)

Amen to that!!! I had a week where I got 10 really good sticks in 3 days, all on the first try, smooth as butter, no bleeding, all the patients told me it didn't even hurt.

The next 3 days, I couldn't get a darn IV in ....10 attempts on 5 patients, all failed, blowin veins, etc. Came back the next week and I was on a roll again.

[manofcare]

We have an admission specialist that starts IVs and does the pre-op and admission forms, If, she is on our floor at the time. Otherwise, we do everything.

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

I'm glad to see that there are some of my fellow Martians on board!

:)

[XB9S, BSN, MSN, EdD, RN, APN]

I'm glad to see that there are some of my fellow Martians on board!

:)

:D I did like that choice.

[bluefabian]

Start our own IV. And to be honest, I didn't have much training or chance as a student. When I worked in ER, that's basically what I did. Do have the fear of blowing a vein and reattempts - you know how private paying patients are: damn fussy. Now that I work in dialysis, poking people is what I do everyday, even though I don't count that as starting an IV literally. But it sure helped me understand the physical traits of vessels much better now. And I must confess, once you poke the fistula of dialysis patients, failed and see that huge bulging hematoma, starting an IV is like.. meh!!!

[Piki]

None of the answers fit for me. We start our own IVs, but we also have IV Therapy to start PICCs and difficult PIVs, or if we're slammed and don't have the time.

Ditto. I'm still a newbie (almost a year) and we did get to spend 2 hours with the iv team during orientation (probably started 4 iv's then) and then I've probably started about half a dozen on my own since then. But I am not confident and it takes me much longer than the iv team. But so many of our patients are such hard sticks that almost all the nurses here use the IV team or the nurse intensivist.

[traumahawk99]

unfortunately, you've got to bungle it up to learn how to do it right and avoid problems. with the older patients, if you miss, you better be ready with pressure, or else it will turn into a real mess.

i've learned to set up gauze and tape beforehand just in case i miss, so i can get pressure on the site immediately.

[NurseCard, ADN]

I have grown to love starting IV's! Used to be scared to death of them, but I have finally gotten my technique down pat and am on a roll as of late.

We don't have an IV team or IV Therapist where I work, but we have a resource nurse who sometimes comes to the floor to start IV's when the other nurses are busy. The charge nurse also will happily do it if she isn't busy or doesn't have her own load.

We have an outside person who comes in and does PICC lines. Rather inconvenient when one is needed in a hurry.

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

I do my own sticks, usually. I give it two tries, and then I get the best "sticker" on the shift. We've had some folks that had been so sick for so long, they just didn't have a decent vein left, and we've called someone down from ICU to stick them. I had one like that 2 weeks ago, and thankfully (for us, not the patient) it even took them 3 tries to get a vein, so at least they didn't look at us like we were crazy. I've also assisted with insertion of a PICC twice for folks that nobody could get. Even though the patient was numbed up on a lidocaine local and drapped so she couldn't see what was going on, it was just...ODD.. watching the CRNA jab a scapel into the neck of an awake individual (to make room to seat the triple lumen, since the actual line had been passed).