So, I am a sophomore in college in a BSN program. I went last week to job shadow an RN in the med surg department at a local hospital. I was nervous about this experience being that it was my first time being in a medical work environment for several hours and I wanted it to go very well. Soon after I got there, the RN was called into a room to draw blood from a patient so I followed her into the warm room. As she was drawing the blood from the patient, I was very focused on the needle because I wanted to get myself used to (and desensitized to) blood and needles being that I'm going to be having to deal with them a lot. Anyways, it was taking her a long time because the vein was giving her trouble. One second I was fine and then I started seeing spots everywhere and knew I was going to faint. I took off my jacket and sat down and sure enough blacked out. Needless to say, it was kind of embarrassing that I passed out just by looking at the needle and blood. However, I do have a history of fainting from getting too hot or having blood work. And I'm pretty sure I was locking my knees and not breathing right because my sinuses were messed up at the time. (And yes I did eat breakfast) But, I thought for sure that if I watched someone else having blood work done that it won't bother me. Afterward, I was upset, thinking maybe nursing is not for me but I looked up the topic online and saw that other students have had the same problem with fainting and that made me feel a lot better and made me think this is something I can work on. So, I was wondering if any of you have had this fainting issue while starting out in school and if you have grown out of it or any advice you might have for me? Thanks!
