I did my first 2 sticks today!

[kats]

Hi all. I had my second day of phlebotomy training today. I actually did 5 sticks, but only the successful ones count. Oh, well. The first one, I didn't get any blood and then I tried again on the same person and got some. Unfortunately, I took out the needle before taking off the tourniquet. Oops. Don't worry, she didn't bleed all over the place. The second was a guy and I did something else wrong. I don't remember what right now. They were both corpsmen and very understanding though. The third was also a corpsmen, but one I have worked with in the OR. I was pretty nervous. I thought for sure that I would mess up and he would tell everybody in the OR how I gave him a huge hematoma or whatever else I did wrong. I didn't mess up though. That one went fine. I was probably worrying for nothing anyways. He is a nice person and probably wouldn't do that. My 4th patient was actually a patient. He was nervous about needles all together. I joked with him that I had been planning on stabbing the needle into his arm to get his blood but since he seemed like a nice guy, I would be more gentle. I did very well with his too. I think I even did ok with pretending I wasn't brand new at it. Then the fifth, I couldn't get the blood. I was going to try again, but my instructor did it and actually got the blood from the exact same place I was trying. Since she did it, I didn't get credit for that one either. I did get credit for 2 sticks though so I only have 48 to go, a homework assignment, a written exam, and an interview with the LPO of the lab. The good news is that nobody bled to death, nobody's arm fell off, nobody went screaming out of the hospital, etc. I even survived the day too with more confidence now that I am capable of drawing blood. I am definately glad that I am getting to learn this before I go to nursing school. I even found out today that the only volunteers that are allowed to learn phlebotomy are me and the other OR volunteer. I thought they were training all the volunteers, but I guess we are only learning because of the RN in the OR. I just thought I would let you all know how my first sticks went.

-Kimberly

[CountrifiedRN]

Hi Kimberly

Congrats on your first two sticks! (Although I think I'd secretly be counting the other three that didn't count as well! It's all a part of learning, right?)

I haven't had the opportunity to start an IV or draw blood yet (actually not sure if we draw blood in my program because there are lab techs at the hospital that come around to do it), but I am ever on the look out for a patient with good veins and an order for an IV!