Infusion nursing/ the journey to CRNI

[scribblz, BSN, CNA, LPN]

Hey fellow nurses!

My background in nursing is as an LPN for 10 years in mostly LTC settings with limited IV experience. 3 years ago I bridged and got my RN and have been trying to build as much IV experience as possible. Nursing school did not provide any IV placement experience which I found very disappointing. I work on a busy med surg unit and whenever possible start all my own lines. Our hospital has an IV team so the majority of our floor nurses never start IVs. To even be allowed to start my own IVs I had to exaggerate my previous IV experience to my boss and convince him that I needed to keep my skills up. Then I watched every YouTube video on IVs I could find and befriended the IV team crew to absorb as much of their wisdom as possible.

Now I'm doing home infusion nursing on the side, and that's mildly terrifying. You do an online training tutorial on the med and then you are expected to go to someone's house and mix/ reconstitute the med, train the patient about it and establish IV access. Often you don't know if they have a port that needs to be accessed, a PICC or need a peripheral until you get there. Sometimes their pharmacy doesn't even provide all the supplies you need.

But, I'm sticking with it as I need the 1,600 hours of experience to qualify to test for the CRNI, and hopefully get a position in a hospital IV team.

Any other current or aspiring IV nurses? What was your journey like to get there?

["nursy", RN]

I was a PICC nurse and did infusion therapy for almost 20 years. Never got a CRNI. I don't think most IV teams require it.

[scribblz, BSN, CNA, LPN]

Hi Nursy,

Thanks for replying! If you don't mind me asking how did you come by your first PICC nurse position? Curious if you bridged into it from another branch of nursing. Similar to how many hospitals now want you to have a BSN, I've noticed that the inpatient VAT positions now want you to have your CRNI within 6 months or a year of hire. This may not be the case for experienced infusion nurses who've been putting in PICCs etc. for years. In my case where I'm attempting to get into the field from med surg/ tele I'm hoping it makes me a more attractive candidate!

["nursy", RN]

I was doing home health, when PICC's were first coming into vogue. When I saw that the PICC nurse was making a heck of a lot more money than I was, I took the PICC course. Since the agency I worked for wanted me to provide this service, they found someone to precept me and I was on my way. After about 10 years as an independent contractor, I got hired at a hospital based infusion center. But I think you are on the right track! Good luck!