Is this common?

[pepino23]

At my hospital we have discharge nurses to do our discharges, IV team to put in all of our IVs, and the lab comes and draws our labs for us. While all of this is great and it frees me up to a lot of other things on our very busy Cardiac PCU, I can't help but wonder how common is this? I eventually want to move to a different city and I don't want to go to another hospital and look completely useless that I can't draw labs, put in IVs, or do a discharge. During my clinicals in other hospitals none of this existed. Does anyone else have this at their hospital?

[RainMom]

We don't have IV teams but do have admit/DC nurses & phlebotomy draws labs. Admissions are still often done by the floor nurses because discharges are given priority by the ADT nurse. They work a varied schedule but usually are gone by 2000, so any admits or DC after that will still need to be done.

[armyicurn]

OP, please PM me where you work. I need a place like that.

Thanks.

[shellyscorner]

You stating that you are a psych nurse but do not believe or approve in specialty nursing is humorous.

Oh! Ouch! That doesn't seem fair. There is a difference between specialty and super-sonic subspecialty. But hey, I'm just a student. What do I know!?!

[Apryl_len]

Not very common at all, we do have IV teams, but only for midlines, central lines and PICC lines. You're very lucky to have those ancillary helping you, more time for you to take care of the pt and do your charting. By any chance any job opening in that hospital :)...

[maybug, ADN, BSN, RN]

I've worked at 4 different hospitals in NC and SC and this seems to be the norm around here, though I know of hospitals that don't have all these luxuries. Some units are better than others obviously, too. Bigger hospitals have IV teams while smaller hospitals don't. But this hasn't ever been a huge issue, if I can't get an IV (which happens a lot because I'm not very good at them) an ICU or more experienced nurse will try for you. I've never drawn labs in my life as I've always worked with a lab team that draws for me. Now, I've always done most of my admissions because I work nights and we don't have admission nurses at night but there are usually nurses that do admissions and discharges for day shift. Also- I'm a new travel nurse and none of these skills, or lack there of, has been an issue for me. Don't let that keep you from pursuing new opportunities.

[CeciBean, ASN, RN]

I traveled for several years and the hospitals I worked in varied greatly. I was used to doing my own IVs but not labs except for lines, and was always used to doing my own admits and discharges. In many of the hospitals I worked in, there were IV teams but they went home at 11, so if an IV came out at night, sometimes it would get left out unless the patient had an antibiotic (those on antiarrhythmics etc. had lines so that wasn't usually a problem). I couldn't stand that so I often functioned as an ad hoc IV team because I didn't want to lose my skills. At one hospital the techs drew labs except for lines, at others we had phlebotomy. Never a discharge nurse but on some units the charge nurse did the admits. Traveling is its own weird subspecialty, I guess; you learn to be flexible. Just keep your IV skills up and everyone will love you, especially at night! :)

[pepino23]

OP, please PM me where you work. I need a place like that.

Thanks.

Sorry but the website won't let me.

[pepino23]

Thank you everybody for your comments! It gives me a much better perspective on how things work across the country! I am indeed lucky to work in such a place, especially as my first job. It makes me appreciate how many resources I have. I would like to continue to grow in my career though, so eventually I will like to move. But, it is good to know that I won't be deemed completely useless. :) I'll keep working on trying to find a way to practice IVs and learn discharges.