Is it normal that my school doesn't teach us IVs?

[Annie_1101]

I just started nursing school and I've been told that we're not allowed to do IVs. Is this in all nursing schools or just mine? I'm worried that I won't be prepared when I get my first nursing job.

[AngelRN27]

I straddle the fence on this one...

My university taught us both IV & foley insertion, as well as the maintenance of both. They were introduced with "theory" (common practice/indications/cautions) and then were followed up by "skills labs" which we were required to accumulate a certain amount of hours in, in order to then attempt our "sign-off." This consisted of a full walk-through and demonstration on a dummy. Each student had two attempts to pass this demo perfectly in order to get their sign-off. Only students who had successfully completed this process could attempt/practice those skills in the clinical setting.

I appreciate that this is how my school handled most (if not all) hands-on skills. It made the majority of us more confident as we knew that we were taught the process from A to Z. We were also truly lucky in that our clinical professors usually worked on the units that we visited as clinical sites (at some point in their career-- or they worked on a neighboring unit, and had seen many of the nurses around) so we were often provided with awesome hands-on opportunities.

That being said-- as many posters have mentioned, a skill such as IV insertion is something that requires a good amount of practice to get any good at, and that's something that will occur on-the-job. I don't necessarily think it's something that needs to be practiced in nursing school, although, again, I really appreciate that I was given the opportunity to.

PS. I had no idea prior to this post that it was so common not​ to explore these skills in school.

[AspiringNurseMW]

We already learned how to do Foley insertions 1st semester, 2nd semester was setting up iv tubing and managing pumps. We do IV 4th semester, but only on dummies, we are not allowed to start them in clinicals (unless you have an awesome nurse, lol)

It is my understanding that many jobs require you to check off on iv skills anyway, requiring you to start x number of IVs before you can start them on the floor anyway.

[PhillyRNtoBe]

What? Most schools don't teach IV? And you weren't even taught Foley insertion?

Wow. I guess my school is over-the-top. They taught us all of that. We were taught Foley as a first-semester basic skill. And IVs were introduced in 2nd semester. I've inserted a good number of IVs during my ASN program. In fact, we were required to perform a successful insertion on a fellow student before we were even allowed to go to 2nd semester clinical rotation. That seems crazy that someone could graduate never having learned that skill.

My BSN program told us we will only be practicing those skills in the lab on a dummy we are not allowed to practice on patients in clinical rotations. According to "Best Practice" apparently new grads are more successful when being trained on the job using the technique that their hospital or facility wants them to use. Some hospitals don't even have nurses inserting IV's, they have found that they have better outcomes etc. with IV teams handling those type of skills, while the nurse needs to focus on med administration, etc. So they are taking away basic yet tedious tasks from nurses that allow them to focus on more important parts of patient care and reduce med errors. I was shocked when I heard I will not be allowed to practice any of those things until I have a RN license. Times are changing I guess.

[PhillyRNtoBe]

I straddle the fence on this one...

My university taught us both IV & foley insertion, as well as the maintenance of both. They were introduced with "theory" (common practice/indications/cautions) and then were followed up by "skills labs" which we were required to accumulate a certain amount of hours in, in order to then attempt our "sign-off." This consisted of a full walk-through and demonstration on a dummy. Each student had two attempts to pass this demo perfectly in order to get their sign-off. Only students who had successfully completed this process could attempt/practice those skills in the clinical setting.

I appreciate that this is how my school handled most (if not all) hands-on skills. It made the majority of us more confident as we knew that we were taught the process from A to Z. We were also truly lucky in that our clinical professors usually worked on the units that we visited as clinical sites (at some point in their career-- or they worked on a neighboring unit, and had seen many of the nurses around) so we were often provided with awesome hands-on opportunities.

That being said-- as many posters have mentioned, a skill such as IV insertion is something that requires a good amount of practice to get any good at, and that's something that will occur on-the-job. I don't necessarily think it's something that needs to be practiced in nursing school, although, again, I really appreciate that I was given the opportunity to.

PS. I had no idea prior to this post that it was so common not​ to explore these skills in school.

According to my school it's some sort of new "Best Practice change that they are implementing in many schools. I think all the major employers in my area were unhappy with all the different techniques and lack of consistency that students were coming into the workforce with. Employers were retraining them on "their way to do it", some might say there is an "old school" way of doing things that were being taught to new grads by retired RN's that didn't gel with the techniques that employers were looking for. It seems there were studies done and they proved that learning on the job improves a new grad's IV skills. Also some employers find that nurses have better outcomes and less med errors when they reduce the amount of hands on tasks like IV insertion by giving that job to designated IV teams instead.

[Glycerine82, LPN]

See one, do one, teach one. Skills can be taught on the job.

[Swissmiss7]

Opps, quoted wrong person. But I fixed it!

[Swissmiss7]

I suppose the monkey is a tad bit sharper than me because I still struggle to start IV lines, draw blood and perform cannulation, even after a decade of being a nurse. I am simply not a hands-on person...

I was just wondering if I could possibly get a monkey to come by at this hour and place a new IV on my patient scheduled for the OR tomorrow. Since multiple nurses including myself have already tried, I think it's time to call in a monkey. Wish we had thought of this sooner.

[cleback]

Just going to stick these two cents here...

I think this is a good example of why employers don't want to hire new grads... you have to teach them everything, including basic skills like IVs.

I think schools are doing a disservice to students and potential employers by not even attempting to cover basic skills they'll most likely need.

[lindseylpn]

I attended LPN school in 2004 and we took an optional IV Therapy/Phlebotomy class and practiced on each other. We did lots of Foleys too.

[NotYourMamasRN]

We did a lab where we started IV's on one another but we were not allowed to start IVs or draw blood at clinicals. I got a job as an ER tech in school, so I got hundreds of practice shots with IVs before graduating. We did do foleys in school and clinicals. Our school had a high tech sim lab where the robots did everything from vomit to birth babies. So we got to do foleys on them in lab.

[NotYourMamasRN]

My school has dummy arms

My current hospital has them. They put all nurses, new and old through IV training in orientation. I found that to be pretty great for people who had little exposure. But they were so unlike the real thing, I wondered how useful the training might be. At least it got them comfortable with the equipment I suppose.

[frenchtoastwaffles, BSN, RN]

We do foleys in my school, we don't start IVs though. IV cannulation is on-the-job around here