What skills are you taught/get to practice in school/clinicals?

delirium · Feb 6, 2003

I go to school in MD, and we can start IVs, give IVP meds, and do central dressing changes.

The only thing I've come across that we cannot do are the scary things like hanging blood (although I've infused blood with a nurse), accessing portacaths, and administering chemotherapy.

emily_mom · Feb 6, 2003

Same as Delerium here. Chemo nurses at our hospital have to be certified to hang chemo...wouldn't want to be messing around with that stuff anyway...:)

Kristy

NurseDixie · Feb 6, 2003

I am a 2nd year student. We can give meds IVP,do fingersticks for blood sugars, give IM and SQ shots, insert NG's, foley catheters, change CVL dressings, sterile dressings. We are not taught to start IV's, the instructors say that we'll be taught that skill when we go to work "in the real world".LOL. I guess most bigger hospitals have their own IV teams now.

babynursewannab · Feb 6, 2003

We do accuchecks second semester, too.

laurainaz · Feb 6, 2003

I am a second semester student in AZ. We can give IM/SC injections, Accu-checks, assessments, charting, wet to moist and wet to dry sterile dressing changes, start IV's, insert foleys, insert NG tubes, suction trachs, central line dressing change, 12 lead EKG. Of course we must practice in the lab before we can do it in clinical and for most of these procedures our instructor has to be with us. Also, the opportunity to perform some of the skills rare and some of the nurses at the facility are reluctant to turn over these procedures to us students. I am so glad that we were taught IV's last semester, a lot of nurses I have met at the hospital said they didn't start their first IV until after they graduated....can you believe it?????

srose · Feb 7, 2003

we do everything mentioned in the above posts, including starting IVs and pushing IV meds.

i'm only in first quarter...sometime in 3rd quarter we'll start learing IVs...on each other :eek:

Nurse Izzy · Feb 7, 2003

Where I go to school it breaks down like this:

First semester:

Bedmaking/Bathing

NG Tube Insertion/Removal

Cather Insertion/Removal

D/C IVs

Wound Care/Dressing Changes

Sterile Technique

Med-Surg rotations

Second Semester:

PO Meds/Injections (NO IVs)

OB rotations (Ante, Intra, Postpartum & Mother/Baby)

Med-Surg Rotations continue

Third Semester (Sophomore Year)

Not sure what all goes on here - haven't gotten that far yet - do know that this is when IV starts and meds are taught. We learned about drop factors and figuring IV meds first semester but won't actually put it into practice until 3d semester...

delirium · Feb 7, 2003

Originally posted by srose
i'm only in first quarter...sometime in 3rd quarter we'll start learing IVs...on each other

I'm shocked by this. I can't imagine the liability involved.

We learned on a mannequin arm with veins (and 'blood'). Then when we were checked off on that we could try to insert one on a patient (with instructor and/or staff nurse at side).

memphispanda, RN · Feb 7, 2003

Originally posted by srose

i'm only in first quarter...sometime in 3rd quarter we'll start learing IVs...on each other

I would refuse to do that myself. I would HATE to have stuck one of my classmates/friends 10 times unsuccessfully, and no way in HECK am I letting someone practice on me. The people at the blood bank have a hard time finding my veins and leave huge bruises, and I can't imagine what my arms would look like after someone practiced on them...not to mention that I am a huge chicken and would probably have to be tied down.

Erinkate2959 · Feb 7, 2003

I go to school in PA and the only thing we are not allowed to do is insert IVs and insert NG tubes. We did an IV tutorial on a computer program and this is the only practice we are going to get through our entire program. Not very helpful. We are allowed to do accu checks, IVP meds, injections, remove NGs, foleys, and IVs, etc.

louloubell1 · Feb 7, 2003

Sometimes the things you can or can not do depend on the hospital in which you are having your clinical rotation. We were allowed by our school to have pretty much any experience with clinical skills, but a couple of the hospitals that I rotated through had their own rules. For example, the children's hospital where I did my peds rotation would not let any students come near a child with a needle of any kind (which I actually understood, because I would volunteer myself as a guinea pig but as a mother I would freak at the thought of volunteering my child for practice). That same hospital would also not let student nurses observe any surgical procedures (seems they had a student nurse one time in the OR who kept breaking the sterile field).

At other hospitals that I rotated through, however, I got to participate in any procedure for which an opportunity was presented. As a student, I inserted NGs, foleys, did accuchecks, gave at least a hundred IM shots, started at least fifty IVs, did central line dressing changes, removed central lines, hung blood, yadayadayada. The thing to remember, however, even though I know that these skills seem all important to you when you're in school, is that you will get tons of experience doing these things in your first year on the job. Seize every opportunity you can to practice your skills and expand your knowledge, but don't be too overly concerned with anything you didn't get to do in nursing school. You'll get the experience at some point, don't worry.

Just two other points...then I'll quit writing. I believe chemo nurses must be certified as such in just about all states (could be wrong about that). Those are very nasty drugs, to both patient and nurse, and it would be a bad idea to have students handling them anyway. The other thing, regarding accuchecks....a reason you may not be able to do this in your clinical rotation is because of weird rules that hospitals must conform to with regards to point of care tests (like accuchecks, beta-HCG tests, etc). Often, the hospitals own employees even have to be "credentialed" in these very simple tasks to be able to perform them in the workplace.

Good luck with school!

Lou

Convicted of placenta previa & serving time on couch arrest ~ Day 36

justjill · Feb 7, 2003

we do our IV check off on each other.....it is going to be scary! :) our professors were telling us that our school used to make everyone had to do an NG tube on someone else in the class for check offs.....but now we don't because of the liability issue.

does anyone have to give a complete bed bath on a fellow student? we don't anymore, but that just changed the year before i started school!