Nursing Students General Students
Published Aug 25, 2007
tabswifeRN
118 Posts
I am starting in the adn program. I have IV Therapy the FIRST quarter. Is this normal? I was reading the objectives and I have to know how to initiate an IV by the 3rd week. We don't even start our clinicals until the 3 rd week. I'm excited by this but It just seems a little soon.
Reno1978, BSN, RN
1,133 Posts
During my first semester of nursing school, we practiced nearly all skills in a nursing skills lab prior to going to clinical over the first 3-4 weeks. It is helpful because in clinical, everyone has a different experience, and when opportunities to practice skills come up, you ought to be prepared and take advantage of the opportunity.
It may be your 1st or 2nd week of clinicals and you get an opportunity to insert your first IV...or a whole semester may go by without an opportunity to do one on a patient.
These first weeks of school will be an opportunity to learn about and practice, in a safe environment, the skills that you'll be using later on in your clinical rotations and on into your experience as a professional nurse.
Daytonite, BSN, RN
1 Article; 14,604 Posts
i've been an rn and iv therapist for many years. the only reason i can see why it would be inappropriate for an rn student to learn the principles of iv insertion would be (1) if the state law disallowed it, and (2) if there were some preliminary principles that you would have had to be taught first that had been skipped. i don't think that is the case and i know ivs. i've included a link to an article entitled "iv insertion - still a special skill". it discusses the problems of nurses not being proficient in iv starting, the decline and atrition of iv teams and increase in lawsuits secondary to problems related to poor iv insertion technique. speaking from experience. . .i saw many licensed rns who really sucked at iv insertion. it's probably a good idea that your school is starting you out early in learning this skill. it takes months, years, to become proficient in this skill. it took me years to become a master at it. seeing as it is a skill that, in many cases, separates you from all other healthcare personnel (although in many states lpns are now allowed to start ivs too), i, personally, think it's pretty lame when an rn can't do them and really embarrassing if an lpn knows more about ivs than an rn (that is totally my personal opinion and attitude after years and years of doing iv therapy).
StudentNurseAbby
316 Posts
That seems odd to me. I'm going into my 3rd semester of my ADN and we start doing that towards the end of the semester.
I appreciate the replies. I am actually glad that they are starting us out the first quarter learning IV Therapy. I was just under the impression that this was a skill that they usually taught during your second year. I guess what I was curious about this is: Is this becoming a new thing in nursing school. I started nursing school 10 years ago and couldn't finish due to family problems, and they wouldn't even let you near the rubber arm with a needle until you were a second year student.
I have had bad experiences with nurses that are not efficient in starting a I.V. The last time I was in the hospital to have my appendix out the nurse stuck me 7 different times before he could initiate a proper I.V. I was not a happy camper. Not to mention that it blew a day later and my arm was swollen with fluid. Talk about the burn. :angryfire
southernbelle08
396 Posts
We started it during our second semester. :)
MidwifeWannaB
152 Posts
When I was in NS we did IV's second semester of an ADN program. I dropped out before we got signed off on them in the lab, but I know a couple of students who at least helped start them during clinicals that semester.
marilynmom, LPN, NP
2,155 Posts
We learned them either in the first or second semester (I can't remember!). But I think it's good your learning how to do them in your first semester because during clinicals IV starts can be hard to come by....usually no one wants a student trying to stick them, the RNs for the most part usually go find the ONE RN who can start them, it's really ridiculas at times how bad RNs can be at IV starts and how flustered they get with the whole thing. And I don't even want to think about the poor patient who has to endure the pain of it all
IV skills, take a LONG time to get good at for most people.