IV teams in Texas hospitals

Nalon1 RN/EMT-P, BSN, RN · Mar 18, 2014

I had never heard of an IV team until about a year ago when visiting my Aunt in MD Anderson.

She needed a 2nd IV and the nurse said that the IV team had been called and would be there in about 10 minutes. I looked at my Aunts arms and saw 5-6 sites I could have easily started a line. It kind of made me wonder what the deal was (and truthfully a little concerned since the nurse did not even attempt even once, what other skills was she lacking?).

When the IV team nurse came in, I started chatting with her while she was getting her stuff ready and she told me that basically floor nurses were not allowed to start IV's or draw blood unless an emergency (I did feel a little bad for doubting the nurse).

I am still blown away by this, that was the nurses only job, starting IV's and drawing blood. Seems to be a waste of money when phlebotomists can do blood draws and techs can start IV's (or the nurse just do it herself).

In my facility, we are a nurse draw hospital. The few phlebotomists that work there are in the lab and don't do blood draws.

Nurses start their own IV's and draw blood on the floor. If a difficult stick, they call the SWAT nurse (or a tech from the ER).

I do admit that it would be nice though to not have to worry about drawing labs and restarting lines and such. As a Paramedic and former ER tech, all the floor nurses know that I can start IV's, so they tend to ask me to do their difficult sticks.

godbless-yute · Mar 18, 2014

Thanks for your response Nalon 1. What is SWAT? It sounds like that's what I would be looking for. I'm an ER nurse, but for a second job I'd want something a lot less hectic. Starting IVs is one of my favorite things to do, especially when they're a "hard stick". A job starting IVs all day would be the easiest money I ever made.

Nalon1 RN/EMT-P, BSN, RN · Mar 18, 2014

SWAT nurse is kind of a float nurse that goes throughout the hospital (only 1 on duty in our ~180 bed facility)

They do rapid responses, code blue, assist with transfers, bring patients that need monitoring from the ICU/IMU to CT/MRI, run/help with the virtual unit (an overflow area in the ER where admitted patients can go that has rooms and gets them out of the ER), start IV's, draw labs, get blood, cover lunches and just about anything else that needs to be done (I had one offer and did go get me a soda when I was too busy to get me something).

A SWAT nurse is a lot more hectic than just about any nurse position in the hospital.