Continuing Education for RN

[Katya_F]

Hi!

I have a question about IV Initiation, phlebotomy and IV therapy courses in Toronto. I found some courses in different colleges (George Brown and Centennial Colleges), but I don't know which course to choose: how many hours should the course last? There are courses that last 1 day and there are courses that last 1 month! It is really confusing. I am looking for a job right now and lots of hospitals require those courses. So I need some advises from you and from your experience. Thanks a lot!

[ruralgirl08]

From my expereince, these are usually taught on the job in orientation, if they are a job requirement, (which they usually are in an acute care setting.) So I wouldn't think need to take them before hand.

But if you are going to take one anyway, I would take an IV therapy/initiation course that gives you the hands on training to start IVs on real patients. Make sure the course allows you some kind of clinical time to practice this on real people. This is definitely something that takes alot of practice to be good at. If you can start IVs, then you should be easily able to draw blood. (So you probably don't need a phlebotomy course.) Just my thoughts.

[loriangel14, RN]

It depends on how much they cost. IV initiation is usually attainable through the employer for free.

[Fiona59]

Got to agree with everyone else. IV starts usually need to be witnessed by a CNE or approved staff member before being permitted to do them unsupervised upon hiring. Refresher courses are offered every couple of months for staff who don't do a lot of starts.

IV therapy is included in all new grads education. Chemo certification is done on site by the employer. All meds have info via the hospital computer system if it's the first time you've hung it.

Sounds like thee courses are for refresher purposes only.