I graduated 3 years ago. I am new to the peds floor. Yesterday we started an IV on a 6 month old baby who was slightly dehydrated and VERY chunky (24 pounds). I was comforting the baby while the IV team nurse and my trainer were attempting to start the IV. I am very traumatized but here is what happened:
Strap baby down on table across the chest and legs. Baby is wiggling a lot and rubbing herself red where the restraints are. She's screaming crying. They tie the tourniquet and baby screams and cries even more. Arm turns red and face turns red, no tears bc baby is dehydrated. IV is inserted and baby gasps for air and screams harder and keeps turning her face. There is no blood return so the nurse wiggles cath around. This goes on for about 15 secs-I removed the tourniquet bc they forgot to. They decide the IV is useless and they take it out. This took about 3-4 mins. They find another site and attempt again. this time they mess with the IV for about 4-5 mins bc it has a kink in it but it is in the vein. Baby is reacting the same way and I'm getting worried bc she has been crying like this for about 10 mins, rubbing herself raw against the restraint and she is continuously red from crying. They finally decide to take the IV out. I take the restraint off and sit the baby up and try to comfort her. They joked that they are cold hearted and they can tell I'm new. They want to attempt her legs now. So we lay her back and begin again. This goes on for about 20 more mins. They need more supplies so I leave. I asked if I should get a paci and they said it wouldn't help. I got one anyways. I come back and had some water so I could keep dipping the paci in it bc I noticed the baby's lips were now chapped and her mouth had no moisture. The baby keeps falling in and out of sleep these last few times which lasted about 15 minutes. The baby only had two very very small breaks (about 1 minute each), we were in there for 45mins to an hour, the baby had nothing to drink except what I was offering from dipping water on the paci. I am so upset about this. This was over 24 hours and I am so sad. I am going to the mgr and asking about a different process for insertion of IVs on babies. I'm new to the unit and hospital and I don't want to overstep but I feel this could have been done a better way.
What do you think?