Injections practice?

Nursing Students General Students

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Hi,

my wife is a nursing student and wants to use me to practice injections for some exam. I told her NO WAY! I don't mind the cooking, cleaning, laundry and other stuff but she can't use me as a pin cushion. She needs to practice injections with subcutaneous and intramuscular, which a friend of mine says hurts. She claims it won't hurt that much but she can forget it. Plus she needs to inject it into my stomach! Has she lost her mind?

Anyway is there something else she can pratice on? She says they use pillows at school then during the exam they inject the professor (I take you have to be insane to be nursing profeesor). Can't she practice on herself? How about she uses the dog? Or some sort of dead animal? I'll gladly run over the neighbors cat or a squirrel or something. Or am I being a baby like she says? Can't you kill somebody if you screw it up? Why can't she use the million dollar robo paient they just bought, IStan? I thought that was the whole point of having it.

Anyway thanks. She is doing much better since she took some of your advice (studying in a group has helped a lot), straight A's. But she is really hard worker, so no surprise.

Specializes in M/S, Tele, Sub (stepdown), Hospice.

Also....nothing is the same as a real person (mannequin, dead animal, etc.) lol

Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

Yeah seriously an orange is not like a person. I have particularly thick skin and it is a challenge to get an IV started when you are used to the paper thin mannequins.

And all you screaming asepsis, what part of practice says you dont follow asepsis? Its not like you go around using the same needle, no site prep and poor technique. Im crazy not stupid but if someone doesnt follow strict asepsis they do not get to poke me. Simple as that. Our patients are practice but I would like me and my fellow students to have some basic practice and tries under our belt.

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

the difference is an orange can't get an infection and pay for the antibiotics required to cure it or sue you. i cringe that i could be the future patient at the mercy of some of this nonchalant thinking. this rationalizing that it is "no big deal" if "alcohol and proper technique" are employed, but not proper supervision because that is what the rules or procedure calls for is how short cuts end up getting made and people come to think they are the way things are supposed to be done. when you get into clinicals and see experienced nurses doing things the wrong way and discuss them in your post conferences try to remember this post because this innocuous situation is how things like that start and inflate into bad habits and rule breaking. rules and procedures are in place for a reason, folks. and as future leaders it is your duty set good examples and follow them.

Specializes in Orthopedic, Corrections.

When I was in medical assistiant school, we practiced on each other for ID, and SQ injections (with our instructors present) In nursing school, we only practiced technique, and "practice" on our clinical patients. The hardest part of injections is asceptic technique, and figuring out what position to put your fingers that is most comfortable for you, that can all be done without puting someone you love at risk (no matter how small)

Specializes in CRNA.
the difference is an orange can't get an infection and pay for the antibiotics required to cure it or sue you. i cringe that i could be the future patient at the mercy of some of this nonchalant thinking. this rationalizing that it is "no big deal" if "alcohol and proper technique" are employed, but not proper supervision because that is what the rules or procedure calls for is how short cuts end up getting made and people come to think they are the way things are supposed to be done. when you get into clinicals and see experienced nurses doing things the wrong way and discuss them in your post conferences try to remember this post because this innocuous situation is how things like that start and inflate into bad habits and rule breaking. rules and procedures are in place for a reason, folks. and as future leaders it is your duty set good examples and follow them.

dude, i think you are trying to make a simple im injection into a liver resection. here are some instructions for the students: 1) find desired muscle 2) clean with hibiclens/betadine/alcohol....your choice 3) shove in needle 4) aspirate (no blood return in syringe....good) 5 slam in drug....done end of procedure.

thinking back to the er days, i cannot remember how many syringes of haloperidol i have pushed through the jeans/shirts/underwear of some psychotic patient trying to wreak havoc on any and all staff working in the emergency department. you think we had time to use aseptic technique on these dudes......yeah right. none of those crazies ever got cellulitis or some god awful infection.

Specializes in ED, ICU, PACU.
Dude, I think you are trying to make a simple IM injection into a liver resection. Here are some instructions for the students: 1) Find desired muscle 2) Clean with Hibiclens/betadine/alcohol....your choice 3) Shove in needle 4) Aspirate (no blood return in syringe....GOOD) 5 Slam in drug....DONE end of procedure.

QUOTE]

Hey Dude, you ain't exactly done.

Forgot #6.............................................................

Take the needle out :chuckle

Specializes in M/S, Tele, Sub (stepdown), Hospice.

Proper supervision is not required for the procedure of giving an injection. I don't get supervised in the hospital everytime I need to give an injection. I think it's worse to "practice" on a patient without supervision than practicing on each other or willing volunteers to get more experience. In fact, the days we did injections in skills lab, we were given extra needles & other supplies and were told to go home and practice....maybe they meant on fruit but we were never told NOT to practice on people. I've been a medical assistant for almost 10 years and I've never heard of anyone getting an infection from an injection....in fact, it's even ok for diabetics not to use alcohol....they just make sure their skin is clean!!!

We're nursing students and I'm sure we would never do anything to compromise our own family members by not using aseptic technique, etc.

I still don't think it's a big deal like some of you are making it to be..... doesn't mean we're gonna go out and take "short-cuts" in our professional life as an RN.

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

soon2bnurse3. . .we are talking about nursing students who are just learning, actually practicing injection technique and never even done an injection on a patient. the op posted that his wife, who is a student, wants to practice on him and he is against this. i agree. i had to demo sq or im injections in nursing lab years ago when i was in nursing school. we practiced on manikins. we gave one im injection of saline to another student with an instructor watching and supervising for check off. we never gave any sq or im injections to any patient as students without our instructors being present. it's a legal and licensing issue in most states. i daresay that if the powers-in-charge learn that some students were taking syringes home and injecting people for practice there would be serious repercussions. by the way, are we talking about individual injections? surely, these syringes are not being used multiple times, are they? also, it is stealing to remove these syringes from clinics or labs without the proper permission. i saw two patients who got infections from injections over the years. you can blow it off as being something that could never happen until you see what it looks like when someone has it happen to them. it is not pretty and it leaves scars.

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
Dude, I think you are trying to make a simple IM injection into a liver resection. Here are some instructions for the students: 1) Find desired muscle 2) Clean with Hibiclens/betadine/alcohol....your choice 3) Shove in needle 4) Aspirate (no blood return in syringe....GOOD) 5 Slam in drug....DONE end of procedure.

Thinking back to the ER days, I cannot remember how many syringes of haloperidol I have pushed through the jeans/shirts/underwear of some psychotic patient trying to wreak havoc on any and all staff working in the emergency department. You think we had time to use aseptic technique on these dudes......yeah right. None of those crazies ever got cellulitis or some god awful infection.

Do you realize this is a student forum you are responding to? You slam in the drug? That is not how you were taught to give all injections. I understand doing it in an emergency. How long were these patients in your ER that you got to see the results of your not using aseptic technique? I saw several infected injection sites over the years in addition to a couple of infected arterial lines that had been put in under emergency situations. It does happen, days later, not in the ER.

Specializes in M/S, Tele, Sub (stepdown), Hospice.
soon2bnurse3. . .we are talking about nursing students who are just learning, actually practicing injection technique and never even done an injection on a patient. the op posted that his wife, who is a student, wants to practice on him and he is against this. i agree. i had to demo sq or im injections in nursing lab years ago when i was in nursing school. we practiced on manikins. we gave one im injection of saline to another student with an instructor watching and supervising for check off. we never gave any sq or im injections to any patient as students without our instructors being present. it's a legal and licensing issue in most states. i daresay that if the powers-in-charge learn that some students were taking syringes home and injecting people for practice there would be serious repercussions. by the way, are we talking about individual injections? surely, these syringes are not being used multiple times, are they? also, it is stealing to remove these syringes from clinics or labs without the proper permission. i saw two patients who got infections from injections over the years. you can blow it off as being something that could never happen until you see what it looks like when someone has it happen to them. it is not pretty and it leaves scars.

like i said before....we get checked off by our clinical instructors on giving injections to make sure we are safe and we are off to give injections without any instructor or rn supervision on the floor. must not be a legal issue in california because that is how it's done here. and we did not steal syringes or other supplies and use them at home!!! it's actually a bit insulting that you think we're stealing and being naive about "practicing" injections away from school/hospital. we were given a bag of supplies which included syringes, needles, alcohol pads, ns vials, etc. to take home and use and also a letter stating that we are nursing students with these supplies in our possession in case we were ever stopped by the police. of course the needles are not being used multiple times!!! that is just ridiculous. i'm not saying let students practice at home on actual people who have no clue what they are doing. i'm just saying once they know what they're doing, rationales, proper technique, & everything else that's needed for a safe injection....it's not as bad as you're making it out to be...imo.

In my school, we are required to do return demonstrations on intradermal and IM injections. We are partnered so after one student injects me, I inject her in return. For that we needed practice. We didn't practice doing IM injections without the instructor. It didn't really hurt...

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

When I was in nursing school we got to give each other 1 injection in lab. My husband made me go the orange route as he wasn't up for being practiced on and back then I didn't know how to manage him properly.

15 years later I just finished a phlebotomy class and he let me practice on him as needed. I guess my spouse management skills have improved!:chuckle

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