Does your facility have a dedicated I.V. team?

Mine does, although I am not sure I wholly agree with it as it de-skills the other qualified nurses...

The hospital I am currently traveling at has an IV team....I do not think they even want the staff nurses trying for IV's and lab comes and draws all the labs as well......I kinda miss blood draws.

Our small hospital does not. If we can not get the IV in, we call house supervisor or one of the ICU nurses.

Mine does, although I am not sure I wholly agree with it as it de-skills the other qualified nurses...

I totally agree.

Did away with it over 15 years ago. My first job had one and it was nice.

Yes, our hospital has a dedicated IV team. They start all IV's (except sometimes in the ER - but there is a person assigned to that area). They also are allowed to DC most picc lines. They are the only ones allowed to change the dressings on the picc lines and central lines. Almost always they are johnny on the spot, however, there are times they are not and we have to repeatedly page them.

Hope this helps.

Lucy, LPN

We have 1-2 nurses on the day shift, 1 on evenings, and maybe 1 on nights. If there's no one for the night shift, the crisis nurse does it. As geropsych is considered low priority, we sometimes have to wait a couple hours for someone to come. I had wanted to learn, but was told not to bother as only the IV nurses are allowed, although I think ED is allowed to start their own.

There is an IV team - with really cool toys! I watched them (unfortunately struggle to) place a peripherial IV on a slightly dehyrated LOL using an ultrasound to visualize veins.

The Homecare company I had a preceptorship with also had a dedicated IV team.

my first hospital did therefore i never got to practice my skill (or lack of) as a new grad. when i started traveling, no facility since has had a team dedicated to do it, therefore i was the 'traveler who has never started an iv and *gasp* she's been a nurse for a year and a half!'

it was somewhat humiliating.

i am not an advocate for iv teams. besides, budgeting cuts will eventually disrupt the iv teams in place now neways, true?

Yes, BUT they don't do babies, so we do all of our own. We also get called to the other floors to do them if the resident on that floor can't get it.

And I've been a nurse for over a year now and have successfully started one IV. I'm great at venipuncture, but somehow I can't get an IV in. It's kind of sad.

aw, it's not sad, i think it's about practice.

i was straight forward about my lack of skill and my fantastic floor managers sacrificed their veins (with EMLA haha) until i had succeeded. in 4 months i'm up to 12 iv's because the other nurses knew i needed practice, so they were all too excited to let me try their pt's.

i think it's not good to have to rely on teams b/c if there is a code or an urgent situation where a pt needs immediate iv meds and they need an iv started or new one, the pt's nurse has to wait until someone can start one...that is not the best patient care practice and could be seen as delayed pt care, as the RN should be able to do it.