Getting hired in a specialty

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Hi! I just got my nursing license in July of last year. I worked for a few months in a skill facility and then took a full time job at a medical weight loss Clinic. At the time I worried it was career suicide and slowly I feel I am proving the theory right. I am currently getting a certificate for IV administration (will have it next month) and would love to be in the speciality. But I am finding difficulty getting out of this pigeon hole. How can I get my foot in the door to be an IV Nurse?

Thanks

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Specializes in Palliative, Onc, Med-Surg, Home Hospice.
Hi! I just got my nursing license in July of last year. I worked for a few months in a skill facility and then took a full time job at a medical weight loss Clinic. At the time I worried it was career suicide and slowly I feel I am proving the theory right. I am currently getting a certificate for IV administration (will have it next month) and would love to be in the speciality. But I am finding difficulty getting out of this pigeon hole. How can I get my foot in the door to be an IV Nurse?

Thanks

Keep applying to acute care facilities. Curious if you mean infusion nurse or if you mean IV team? Where I work, it's not easy to get a position in the Infusion Centers because a) no one leaves and b) a lot of nurses want to work for the infusion centers.

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Thank you for the reply! I did mean IV team. Too green for infusion. I am concerned that i am being overlooked for positions due to my current job. I dont know how to get past that. I also have a BA in speech pathology and worked as a project manager in pharmaceutical market. But these dont seem to help as i thought they would. Do you know how to get on an iv team?

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Specializes in Infusion Nursing, Home Health Infusion.

You have to have superior IV skills to be placed on an IV team or just get lucky and get selected to be trained.It is not just placing PIVs,PICCS and Midlines.You must know infusion therapy including all the current standards of care because you are the one that is the resource person for all things IV. If you have an interest I suggest you pick up an infusion therapy book and I can suggest my favorites.When you start to read it you will be surprised what you do not know! All of the things I now know from experience and years of study gets directly passed to my colleagues and my patients benefit immensely. You can do it too if you are drawn to the speciality but it's not a cake walk!

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Specializes in Palliative, Onc, Med-Surg, Home Hospice.
Thank you for the reply! I did mean IV team. Too green for infusion. I am concerned that i am being overlooked for positions due to my current job. I dont know how to get past that. I also have a BA in speech pathology and worked as a project manager in pharmaceutical market. But these dont seem to help as i thought they would. Do you know how to get on an iv team?

Just keep applying to acute care facilities. I worked LTC for 2 years before landing my first acute care position. I am not in Onc/Palliative. Just keep trying and once you get an acute care position, when you can transfer, apply for the IV team position. At my facility, those positions are usually filled internally. (I have yet to meet an IV team nurse who wasn't a staff nurse before)

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I appreciate the feedback. Very helpful! I definitely am interested in reading up on the subject. Please let me know which ones you recommend.

Thank you!!

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Ah! Excellent! I was looking for that type of info. Thank you very much! ☺

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Not every acute care facility has such a position or advertises for it. My hospital does not have them. We only have PICC nurses who do not do it full time but rather a few shifts a month in addition to their other position. Another hospital in the area has an IV team, whose members do that exclusively and do not work the floors. However, I have never seen it advertised... I believe the roles are maybe not official ones and are internally filled. You may need to do some research and asking about to get into that role.

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Specializes in ICU, trauma.

What a unique specialty! I would suggest if you love starting Iv's etc.. to apply to more of an ambulatory or same day surgery type setting where they frequently start IVs. Places where you can at least get your foot in the door

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Women's Health, Education.

Is there an IV Nurses Association you can join? Sometimes you can network and get the inside scoop on openings and other information.

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Specializes in Vascular Access.

I'm a vascular access nurse. I do this full time placing IV's, Midline's, PICC's, etc. It took me several years to build a reputation in the hospital as the expert in vascular access. After I had proven my worth I was trained to place PICC's. I've been doing this almost exclusively for the past 8 years. It does take some time to get in to this very unique specialty.

If this is what you want to do I would also recommend becoming a member of The Association for Vascular Access. If you have a local network I would also recommend joining that group. This is a growing specialty with a lot of new studies being published. Study up and learn. Like BSN16 mentioned, get your foot in the door. Rarely are these positions filled from outside applicants. They need to know that you are the expert.

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Specializes in ER.

Our hospital has a PICC/midline nurse. Another hospital contracts out for it. A third does have an IV team but it's IV/rapid response team so you need 5+ years or be a NP.

In general, I think getting into an acute care position may benefit you more than getting the IV infusion certification. Besides chemo, I don't think I have ever heard of it.

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