IV starts

[PlanetCaroline]

In my nursing program, I won't learn IV starts, so I am asking you new grads...

Where are you learning IV starts? In nursing school, orientation to your 1st job, or somewhere else?

I doubt I will be very desirable on the floors w/o the ability to start an IV.

Thanks.

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Caroline

[Jasano]

Every posting thus far has missed the boat I'm afraid. The fact of the matter is, starting IVs, at least for me, was sheer hell when I came out of school; this was precisely because I had not received any training at my university. Sad, and pathetic that this is the case. Instead of spending three days on therapeutic touch and cleansing auras, or learning how to plan community programs for 6 months, and then nurse networking for another 6, I think we could have spared far more time for the basics, like IV starts - well all the basic skills for that matter.

Unfortunately, while medicine and paramedicine still view IV starts as a valuable skill, nursing does not and many programs are quietly abandoning this valuable training. In its eternal quest to veer as far from medicine as possible, nursing is sending out grads who are underqualified to perform a variety of assigned tasks and assessments - and dare I say it, UNSAFE to do so? Luckily for me, I was an RPN before becoming an RN. Suffice it to say, I was very much disappointed in the lack of practical application and medical knowledge provided by my program (Ryerson University).

Starting IVs can be a terrifying experience for new grads who have not received any prior training. Much better to take a program that includes this skill. In fact, I would say that if your program doesn't include it, you might want to take a close look at what else it doesn't include. If you find yourself discussing nursing intuition, caring paradigms, nursing theory and therapeutic approaches, and find you keep asking yourself when you're going to get into diseases processes, treatment, assessment and procedures, then you may come to realize, as I did too late, that you're in the wrong program. Nursing can be a rewarding and highly enjoyable field, but things go much more smoothly if you set out on the right foot.

If you end up with a soppy, emotionally-laced, theory heavy program with little or no real-world applicability, I guess you could always do what I'm doing now - sit down with an anatomy or med/surg textbook and go through all the material that WASN'T covered in your program.

Do you sense the bitterness? Hmm.... do ya? Time for my daily aura cleansing... :trout:

[moongirl]

learned in school, second semster, first year. Learning labs had fake arms, then we practiced on each other. By the end of the 2nd semester I had done 3 IV starts on pts at the hospital where we did rotations.