Brookhaven Nursing Program

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I will have all of my support classes done next year and will be able to apply to the following year to Brookhaven's nursing program so can be RN. The thing I am most terrified about is learning to draw blood, had really bad experiences with getting my blood drawn when I was young and now have an unatural fear of getting blood drawn or having needles in veins. I know that there are plenty of threads on here that say people had same fear and were able to work through it with exposure. I actually want to immerse myself in it so that I can get through it and hopefully become proficient at drawing blood, placing i.v.s, etc. so that I wont be the one traumatizing patients later on. What I am concerned with is that I thought the Brookhaven program allowed the students to draw blood on each other and get used to it (wasn't really looking forward to people learning on me as I have terrible veins that professionals have issues with so I can't imagine how painful a newbie would be trying to dig in my arm but would rather have the experience with fellow students instead of a patient). However I was just informed by a friend that is currently going through the program that they were not allowed to stick each other, were only allowed to practice on a manequin and her first experience trying was with an 80 year old woman with bruises every where and nonexistant veins! :eek: She said she had to practice putting ivs on her bf so she could get experience.

So my question is for either anyone who has gone through the Brookhaven nursing program, if you would recommend it or if you could relate any experiences? Or if you guys think I should try to take a phlebotomy course prior to applying to for the program so that I can get experience (still scared but gotta confront it at some point) or try to donate blood and see how they do it, or any other suggestions? Thanks so much. Sorry if this is a repeat, I tried to find direct knowledge on blood drawing at Brookhaven but didn't see anything specific

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

You will likely get more replies if you go to the Texas Schools forum.

I don't see how doing a phlebotomy course is going to help you if you have a phobia. You might do better to see a behavioral therapist who can help you recategorize your experience. But chances are you won't be any worse off than many to most of the other nervous new students.

Best of luck.

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Specializes in Peds, Med-Surg, Disaster Nsg, Parish Nsg.

Hello and welcome to the site.

I moved this thread to the TX Nursing Programs Discussion forum for more replies.

Good luck!

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Specializes in NICU Nurse.

Just remember, you are not the only one applying to nursing school with this type of fear. It's something that with practice you will get used to it. I remember when I took my Medical Assistant course I was TERRIFIED when they told us we were going to learn how to draw blood. The first times I did it, yet my hands did shake like crazy and I was unable to get into the vein but after much practice on the dummy I learned how to perfect my skill. Then when it got to doing my first stick on a real patient yes my hand did shake just like they did at the beginning but after taking a deep breath and telling myself that I COULD do it I was successful. I just took my time and focused on the task at hand. I put out of my mind that it was a real person and pretended like I was back in lab doing it on the dummy. I'm sure you will do fine :) I think every nursing student/nurse has at least 1 'fear' or 'dislike' in their profession, be it blood, body fluids, poop, etc...but you learn how to work through it. It takes practice and patience but you will get there. :) I wish you the best!

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Thanks, hearing someone else's personal account really helps!

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