Any IV Med administration nurses??

RN92 · Dec 3, 2004

I did this in home health for several years. You must be very, very good at starting/maintaining IV's. Some pts will have Picc lines, Portacaths, but many wont. You may be the only RN available. Were you certified for IV therapy as an lpn? If not, you need to get some experience in an area where you will be starting alot of IV's such as ER. Good Luck

appleorchard · Dec 31, 2004

I work in an opthamologists office administering Visudyne IV; this drug is used in conjunction with laser treatment to decrease fluid leakage in the eye in pateints with macular degneration. I do anywhere between one to nine cases per day; each takes 30 minutes or so. In between I do IV dye injections of fluorescene so pictures can be taken of blood vessels in the retina; the office I work in does between 15-30 of these a day. I love my job! You really need to be good at IV's; this patient population is older and many have terrible veins, plus the dyes can be quite caustic if they infiltrate. I'm also the only RN in the office, so it helps to have basic nursing procedures down pat; what to do if someone has an anaphylactic reaction, passes out, gets terribly nauseated, etc. It's a great job but not one I'd want to tackle right out of school.

KacyLynnRN · Dec 31, 2004

Thanks for your insight, ER slave & Apple!! I appreciate it!

dknunges · Jan 12, 2005

I have seen some ads for IV therapy nurses for medication administration in outpatient MD offices. Can anyone who does this or know anyone who does tell me how I could go about getting into this field? I graduate with my ASN in May, but any other education I could obtain to do this, or would my RN be enough?? And...if you do this in your job, please tell me what your day is like and what you enjoy about your job. Thanks.
:) Kacy

You can administer IV medication under your RN license alone. The thing is becoming skilled in starting and maintaining IV sites, learning about the different types of access devices used in all settings to administer IV medications. Years ago I became interested in infusion therapy and worked with an IV team at my hospital to fine tune my skills. I then branched out into home infusion therapy providing anything from antibiotics to PICC placement to Chemotherapy to blood transfusions. I really love the IV therapy and am now nationally certified as a CRNI.

A good resource for nurses wishing to become involved in infusion therapy is Intravenous Nurses Society (INS). The web site for INS is http://www.ins1.org. This is a great place to obtain Standards of Care, P&P etc specific to infusion therapy.

Hope this helps

Donna

FUNRN · Jan 12, 2005

I do home health IV therapy. I got most of my IV experience in an Outpatient Surgery Center. You could do a few months there and you get pretty good at it. You will be able to do thumbs and toes no big deal.

The only certification I have is the one from nursing school, but believe me when I tell you, there is a BIG, HUGE difference between a plastic arm and the real arm or hand or foot with tiny veins.

My infusions are usually either 30min or 60min and most of my pts have PICC or central lines but you will encounter at least a couple of pts a week that you'll have to do peripherally and you have to learn not to sweat it. Remember the patients are ALWAYS watching you so you have to get very confident about it.