practicing in nursing school

[linzyann]

When you practice in nursing school, do you practice on one another? What sort of skills do you practice on fellow students? I am not all that nervous about other people giving me shots or drawing blood, but I do not want someone to see my body. So, I'm just worried about that.

[HeartsOpenWide, RN]

We practice on each other. We even have to sign a consent form saying it is okay for people to practice on us for Injections ect...we only use sterile water ect..

The student's right to refuse a given procedure will be honored. If a student chooses not to be a "client" for a particular skill, such as injection, bath, or IV start, the faculty will arrange a simulated experience for that student's lab partner, unless another student is willing to take his/her turn.

Certain procedures are deemed by the faculty to be unsuitable or potentially dangerous for students to practice on each other. These procedures include: urinary catheterization, genitourinary assessment, nasal/oral suctioning, and nasogastic tube insertion.

I think this depends on the schools malpractice insurance because when I went to the JC to get my Medical Assisting we had to practice blood draws on fake arms and injections with those gold pillows. Its the same for their ASN program.

I am very glad that we will get to practice on each other. I know that the first time I drew blood or gave a shot on a real person I was like "this is way different" and I thought it was easier too!

[love for nursing]

We used manniquins for eveything except shots, vitals, bed baths. For bed baths we put on a gown over our clothes and when it came time to get water we would say running water in pan. Shots we used sterile water and gave each other a SC shot, IM was done on the manniquin, interdermal we used a hot dog weinee. I have to wait until the spring for iv starts, I have heard we do one stick on each other.

[michar]

I've been thinking a lot about this.

Those who don't do shots/IV's on each other do you go straight from the mannequin arm to patients? They are soooo different, when I teach IV's I prefer to not start with the mannequin arm unless someone needs a little confidence first.

[locolorenzo22, BSN, RN]

Tip #1: Go slow, #2: don't freak out if you cause a cut... #3. Relax.

I'm just waiting to see when we have to inject a patient at clinicals, I have a tough time locating the vastus lateralis muscle(any tips?)

[nanay]

Hi,

We practiced on each other:

- ID

- IM

- bedbath

- bedshampoo

- physical assessment

- v/s

Good thing was, we could choose our own partner.

:wink2:

[linzyann]

I don't think any Nursing student will care about your stomach and I don't think you should either.Other students will be too occupied with their studies so I doubt they'd care who has abs or not.Losing weight, not losing weight..what's the difference? Will having abs improve your study habits or something? I don't get it...Will it enable you to become a competent Nurse? I don't think so.SO quit worry about meaningless things and Good luck with your studies....

-RNsoon-

I agree with you that being thinner will not help me be a competent nurse- I'm not hugely overweight (to the point that I can't move around well or anything) but I am chunky. Its nothing more than a vanity thing in terms of being ashamed of my body. I've dealt with eating disorders for almost 5 years now, going from very skinny to very fat and every place in between, and I'm just very self conscious about my body.

[ladyinred667]

We only did vitals, assessments, and mobility on each other...we weren't required to do baths or bed changing, but having done clinicals this past week, it probably wouldn't have been a bad idea to do the bed changing in lab....my pt this week was very mobile so it wasn't a problem...but woe to the first pt that isn't!! I about drowned my pt in sweat from nerves this week taking their apical pulse ....I can't imagine how soaked someone in their bed while I'm changing it is going to get!!

I had to do my first bed bath on a pt that had very limited mobility, and let me tell you what, it is a lot harder than doing it with a mannekin! :chuckle: We rolled the pt towards me, so I had to hold him in place while my partner cleaned his back and oh man, I was dying. 223lbs is hard to keep in place when you're not getting a lot of help from the pt. Practice makes perfect, I suppose!

To the OP, the only thing we have done to each other in skills lab is vital signs and transfer.

[Gompers, BSN, RN]

You're best off calling the actual nursing school you're going to or interested in going to. Each school does things differently. When we get posts here about this topic, the replies vary widely!

Some schools, like mine, only had us do assessments on each other, fully clothed. We listened to each other with stethescopes, did vital signs, did neurological exams, etc. We also practiced transferring each other from bed to wheelchair, that kind of thing. When we practiced bed baths, we used a dry washcloth and "went through the motions" showing where we would start the bath (face) and where we would end (handing the patient the washcloth to clean genitals if able, otherwise doing that ourselves). We verbally explained what we'd do, we didn't actually touch each other at all and certainly didn't have to wear bathing suits or underwear! We didn't do any actual procedures on each other - we had mannequins to do those on.

Other schools go as far as to have you half naked doing bedbaths, giving each other shots, inserting nasogastric tubes, doing breast exams, etc. So you really don't know unless you talk to each partcular school.

[det01]

we did everythign short of caths and NGs on each other...but as people said every school is different. I would suggest meeting and talking to someone who has recently graduated from the program, a senior in the program, or an instructor and asking them that question. You will get a better answer.