Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
When I was in nursing school in the mid-1990s, we did both IM's and SQ's on each other after practicing on oranges and then dummies. Nobody thought much about it, and those who were squeamish were allowed to check off this skill by doing an injection on one of the instructors! (Needless to say, most of us were only too happy to practice on each other.)
IVs were another story, however. We were given 14 gauge needles and practiced on this rubber arm with "veins" that stuck up about half an inch above the surface, which was less than helpful when we got into the real world and were confronted with little, spindly, dehydrated 90-year-old veins. We also were not allowed to start IVs in clinicals, so we all graduated and took our boards without having done a single IV on a live person. I don't know about my classmates, but I had absolutely NO confidence in my IV skills until the past couple of years, and it wasn't until about 6 months ago that I could consider myself proficient. Now I'm one of the go-to people when there's a hard start on the floor.....but it took me a lot of starts to get to that point, and I think I'd have gotten better a lot sooner if I'd had practical experience while I was in school. But that's JMHO.
IVs were another story, however. We were given 14 gauge needles and practiced on this rubber arm with "veins" that stuck up about half an inch above the surface, which was less than helpful when we got into the real world and were confronted with little, spindly, dehydrated 90-year-old veins. .
Not allowing you to do IVs in clinicals was a disservice to you and to the patients that you later had to learn on on your own.
Paracticing on a healthy nursing student is not helpful in learing to stick those with old spindly dehydrated veins either.
The student veins were unlike most we have to stick. (too healthy)
I'm curious. What exactly is in the syringes ? When we were learning (in lab) how to do IM, SQ, ID, injections, we drew up water into the syringe and used it to inject a sponge-like ball.
VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN
22 Articles; 9,996 Posts
When I was in nursing school in the mid-1990s, we did both IM's and SQ's on each other after practicing on oranges and then dummies. Nobody thought much about it, and those who were squeamish were allowed to check off this skill by doing an injection on one of the instructors! (Needless to say, most of us were only too happy to practice on each other.)
IVs were another story, however. We were given 14 gauge needles and practiced on this rubber arm with "veins" that stuck up about half an inch above the surface, which was less than helpful when we got into the real world and were confronted with little, spindly, dehydrated 90-year-old veins. We also were not allowed to start IVs in clinicals, so we all graduated and took our boards without having done a single IV on a live person. I don't know about my classmates, but I had absolutely NO confidence in my IV skills until the past couple of years, and it wasn't until about 6 months ago that I could consider myself proficient. Now I'm one of the go-to people when there's a hard start on the floor.....but it took me a lot of starts to get to that point, and I think I'd have gotten better a lot sooner if I'd had practical experience while I was in school. But that's JMHO.