Reactions of nurese as patients

[meownsmile, BSN, RN]

I was just wondering if anyone had a clue as to why patients that are nurses have an aversion to letting a student do anything.

I was sent to A.M. admit the other day off clinical rotation. The real reason for our presence there is to let those who havent had much IV start experience get some. I have been doing IV starts for 9 years as a LPN, and i am in no way inexperienced, however i requested to go because i hadnt started one since August and felt a bit rusty.

One of the patients that i was going to start an IV on was a RN, and said she didnt want a student to put her IV in. She had good veins, i had one picked out already from across the room. Now she could have asked if i had ever done them before, she could have asked how many i had done, she could have even asked what year of nursing school i was in, but didnt.

I kept my cool, and just backed off, didnt say a thing and let the person i was shadowing do it, but it was real hard for me not to ask her who she learned on and how she would have become successful at anything if all the patients she came in contact with didnt want a "student" to do any procedures on them.

I'm sorry but as far as im concerned, whom better to learn on than a more experienced "professional" that should know where a student is coming from and has walked in those shoes. I guess I just dont understand how someone could act like this having been through it themselves. She was ready to devour the young so to speak before it was even born!!

[Whisper]

My first sub-cut injection was on an ex nurse who used to run a hospital! Allthough my mentor never told me that till afterwards!!! And he was very amiable to playing 'guinea pig' to a student as he put it:) I think he got a kick of helping teach the next generation of nurses, he started talking me through procedures:)

However i can understand why many nurses refuse. The last time when I went to donate blood, I was asked whether I minded a student nurse placing the line, and as a student my self, it felt only right to say I didn't mind, and to let her try.....

BIG mistake!!!! well she finally hit it on the third try, before collapsing the vein! It really really hurt, and I am not generally a wimp, but it totally trashed that vein leaving me with a nice bulbous vein as well as a track mark:(

Which is fun to explain on my placement! Allthough looking back I would love to know where her mentor was????

[crnasomeday]

I can understand what you're saying meownsmile, but I think the important thing to realize is that when you are dealing with a nurse who is a patient, they are really just a patient at the moment. As a patient, they have the right to make those decisions, and we just have to respect those rights. I think that I would be leary of letting a student nurse start an IV on me, even though I am a student myself. I'm a coward about needles, and I would feel much more at ease not having someone practice on me.

[janleb]

some people even rn's can do procedures but when it comes to receiving that is another story. I am a student and can inject and IV like the best of them but when someone starts an IV or draws blood on me i get lightheaded, and sick to my stomach and can't look. So I would rather make sure it was done on the first try:) No offense, but I can't handle it. J