How do you practice this??

[Sl1011]

How do you practice inserting IV's, drawing blood, giving shots, etc... basically anything with needles? Do you practice on yourselves, each other, objects? I'm a little nervous about the needles part, but I'm sure you just get used to it over time. I was just thinking about this and am very curious, thanks :)

[mama_d, BSN, RN]

On the job training is the best for this...those fake arms are nothing compared to sticking someone for real. Don't worry, after a few weeks you'll be an old hand. And everyone has off days where they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, too. Find out who the person is on your floor, when you get to that point, who everyone else goes to for the really hard sticks, and tag along and have them talk you through what they're doing and why.

When I had my second baby, I had a nursing student with my L&D triage nurse...he blew my vein the first time and was totally freaking out b/c I just stuck out my other arm and told him where to stick it. I tried to explain to him that the contractions were hurting so bad he could stick me ten times and I wouldn't even notice, but the triage nurse wouldn't let him poke me again. I didn't think that was fair, as long as I was (somewhat) coherent and willing to be stuck. Then she stuck me twice and blew them too. I should have just done it myself.:chuckle

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

no mannequins for ngs though.

we had mannequins for ng. of course, they were nothing like the real thing! we also had a rather active mannequin who coughed during his trach care...and the class after me had a mannequin that gave birth!

~jess

[Roy Fokker, BSN, RN]

we had mannequins for ng. of course, they were nothing like the real thing! we also had a rather active mannequin who coughed during his trach care...and the class after me had a mannequin that gave birth!

~jess

nice! :)

i'm actually pretty excited about robotics and how they could influence education through presentation of more 'realistic' scenarios. we had a mannequin called "homer" in school. he was used as a 'test patient' for various scenarios for us to run through (while he and his symptoms were being controlled by another professor sitting in an adjacent room). i mean, you could "hear" lung sounds, heart tones etc. with your stethoscope while a monitor fed you details such as heart rhythms and bp etc.

while it was some what 'crude' in design - it helped make the whole scenario a tad more 'realistic'.

can you imagine a mannequin complete with veins (especially veins with ivs that could be programmed to 'blow'), skin that turns blue/mottled, have spontaneous sob??

wouldn't that be an interesting experiment/teaching environment?

cheers,

[MB37]

We were not allowed to practice anything invasive on each other on penalty of expulsion - it costs the school extra in insurance to allow this, and mine didn't want to pay for it. We also couldn't take any equipment out of the lab, and were told by an instructor (no idea if it's true) that if you're pulled over driving home and the cops find IV catheters, they'll assume you're a drug user and treat you as such - an additional incentive not to steal practice materials. We had fake arms for IVs, fake butts for enemas, and dummies to practice NG insertion, trach and wound care. We had a SIM man too that we occasionally ran scenarios on, and there was a SIM pregnant woman who gave birth, but I think she was broken for our semester. Nope, the only practice we got was on really sick people with no veins!

[picurn10]

we're going to practice on each other, we had to sign waivers about it. That's the part of NS I'm most scared of