2 yr ADN students..question on IV's and blood draws

[CT Pixie]

Wow, this just dawned on me. I am starting my LPN to RN bridge program soon. I am granted the first years nursing credits due to being an LPN. So, I'll start my nursing classes at the 2nd year 1st semester level.

My question is this...when did you learn to place iv's and draw blood? States vary in what an LPN can do, in my State we cannot start iv's or draw blood unless we get additional training or take additional classes after graduation. I was never taught placing an iv or blood draws. So, I'm thinking its got to be 2nd year as why would they (schools with LPN to RN programs) allow you to bypass taking the 1st year nursing classes if you will have missed skills etc that are in that first year of classes.

So..when did you learn it?

[dandk1997RN, MSN, RN]

We learn IVs in the third semester. Most schools around here don't teach phlebotomy, which drives me nuts because I am a lab supervisor and I think nurses should absolutely know how to draw blood (so I don't have to waste our employers resources by sending someone out for two hours to draw a stat blood at one of our nursing homes when I have a courier in the area that could easily pick up something and get it back to the lab ASAP. If it is truly a stat, having to wait for someone to get from the hospital to the facility and back again instead of a nurse just drawing it and sending a cab is a disservice to the patient.) I've had nursing students come work in the lab just so they could learn how to draw blood....

[CBsMommy]

2 year ADN program here as well and we learned to do them in second semester. Once we checked off in lab, we were allowed to do them during clinicals. Good luck!

[hdawnRN]

We learned them first semester... most of our practice didn't come until 3rd semester.

[CrazierThanYou]

We learned blood draws and IV starts at the beginning of second semester.

[mattfd37]

If you're doing any of the CT CC's you won't be doing it at all. What program are you doing?

[CharlieT]

Advanced med surg, but then again a few of us got some IV starts before that

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

If you're doing any of the CT CC's you won't be doing it at all. What program are you doing?

Not in a CT CC. I'm at St Vincents.

[PinkNBlue, BSN, RN]

We learned it 3rd semester of 4 total semesters.

[jjjoy, LPN]

We practiced IV starts on fake arms. We weren't allowed to do them in clinicals (maybe facility policy?). We didn't learn blood draws at all, and maybe 5 minutes total on what the different vials were for. We heard "Don't worry, you'll learn it on the job." 'Course half the nurses I meet look at me funny when I tell them we weren't allowed to do even one IV start as a student.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

My question is this...when did you learn to place iv's and draw blood?

I was an LVN for four years when I graduated from an RN completion program last year. I never learned to start IVs or draw blood during my time in school. I still have never drawn blood through venipuncture because the lab usually does it. I have only drawn blood through PICC lines.

Even though starting IVs is a routine skill in the facility where I work, I have only managed to start about five IVs successfully in my lifetime. If I miss it (and I usually do), I'll ask another more experienced coworker for reinforcement.

[suanna]

......................we could d/c them. ......

WOW- you passed a skill test that would qualify you to be a confused elderly dementia patient.

I have never understood the current trend in not educating students to performing venous access. This is going to be a big part of your job in most institutions. Instead you spend a few weeks playing with "Nursing Theory" or "Nursing Research"- good and useful areas of study AFTER YOU GET THE BASIC PATIENT CARE SKILLS DOWN. You will by no means get proficient at venous access as a student, but you won't be proficient at many of the skills required to be a fully competent RN. Does that mean you shouldn't be taught the skill???!!. A HS graduate can work for a home health agency drawing blood on the most difficult patients as a "phlebotomist" with a day or two inservice. I hope Nurses can master this skill with a little more effort. Hospitals that "don't allow" students to learn this as part of thier clinical education shouldn't be used as an acute care rotation for RN programs.

[caliotter3]

I went through a BSN program to the end. We did neither IV starts or blood draws.