Newbie

alibee · Jul 24, 2012

Here's a worry that I have: IV insertion. My school in Philadelphia didn't teach us anything about it aside from how to look for infiltrations. We didn't get to practice in school because of "liability" (is this normal throughout the country?), and we're supposed to learn on the job. I'm VERY nervous; I can't imagine patients are going to be thrilled about guinea pigging for me. I've been watching videos and tourniqueting myself and family members to palpate for veins and spot where valves are so I can avoid them, but still, it's nerve racking.

FLmed · Jul 25, 2012

Tstorm, thanks for the note. Congrats to you, as well!! :-) How awesome that you will be in the ICU. What a great opportunity for you. GitanoRN-- you have such a great personality. Thanks so much for the awesome, encouraging note. It is appreciated more than you know!!! Nursel56-- thanks for kudos!!! :-) Tokmom, I have to admit that I love your posts. I'm a big fan of yours!!! :-) I really appreciate the note. Alibee, I completely understand how you feel about the IV sticks. I can only imagine your anxiety. I was able to practice them my last semester in nursing school. I wanted to get really good at them because I would like to eventually end up in the ED or in surgery. So, I made it one of my objectives to initiate venipuncture whenever an opportunity presented itself. This was my objective for my preceptorship. I did get 10 opportunities, and I made 7 out of 10. I would encourage you to read over your procedure manual, keep watching the videos, ask a friend or family member if you can practice on them, and get really comfortable with the steps. I would also only try for ones that you really think you can get for your first couple attempts. This will give you great practice and also instill confidence in you. There's definitely a skill to it and some are better than others. I am hoping to get my success ratio up to at least 80%. You'll get it. You got through nursing school, right? I called my nursing school RN Boot Camp. It was no joke. Oh my goodness gracious. Also, I never told my first patient that they were the first REAL person that I did. So, they don't need to know that they are your guinnea pig. I did venipuncture in school on a dummy (I guess the political term is mannequin) before performing it on a real human being. If you did the same, than you have done venipuncture before and you don't have to lie to your patients that you have done it before.

olliesmommy1005 · Jul 25, 2012

Here's a worry that I have: IV insertion. My school in Philadelphia didn't teach us anything about it aside from how to look for infiltrations. We didn't get to practice in school because of "liability" (is this normal throughout the country?), and we're supposed to learn on the job. I'm VERY nervous; I can't imagine patients are going to be thrilled about guinea pigging for me. I've been watching videos and tourniqueting myself and family members to palpate for veins and spot where valves are so I can avoid them, but still, it's nerve racking.

We were able to stick during school, my first was my 2nd semester (and I got it!) but still I'm nervous to do it on the job without that student title to fall back on I also think that they have IV insertion as part of our orientation. Good luck!1

maunikam · Jul 30, 2012

Congratulations on your accomplishments! Only those of us in the medical field understand how much effort and dedication it takes to survive and make it through school and boards. I too graduated in May, passed boards in June and will start my new job in Aug. in med/surg. I practiced on dummy arms for IV insertions and was fortunate to do many venipunctures in clinicals and preceptorship. I always try to go for the bigger vessels since I am still new to it. Look on YouTube for good techiniques for rolling vessels. I found these vessels more difficult to puncture. Practice, practice, practice and you will be doing it like a pro in no time! Good luck with your new career!

tokmom, BSN, RN · Jul 30, 2012

Tstorm, thanks for the note. Congrats to you, as well!! :-) How awesome that you will be in the ICU. What a great opportunity for you. GitanoRN-- you have such a great personality. Thanks so much for the awesome, encouraging note. It is appreciated more than you know!!! Nursel56-- thanks for kudos!!! :-) Tokmom, I have to admit that I love your posts. I'm a big fan of yours!!! :-) I really appreciate the note. Alibee, I completely understand how you feel about the IV sticks. I can only imagine your anxiety. I was able to practice them my last semester in nursing school. I wanted to get really good at them because I would like to eventually end up in the ED or in surgery. So, I made it one of my objectives to initiate venipuncture whenever an opportunity presented itself. This was my objective for my preceptorship. I did get 10 opportunities, and I made 7 out of 10. I would encourage you to read over your procedure manual, keep watching the videos, ask a friend or family member if you can practice on them, and get really comfortable with the steps. I would also only try for ones that you really think you can get for your first couple attempts. This will give you great practice and also instill confidence in you. There's definitely a skill to it and some are better than others. I am hoping to get my success ratio up to at least 80%. You'll get it. You got through nursing school, right? I called my nursing school RN Boot Camp. It was no joke. Oh my goodness gracious. Also, I never told my first patient that they were the first REAL person that I did. So, they don't need to know that they are your guinnea pig. I did venipuncture in school on a dummy (I guess the political term is mannequin) before performing it on a real human being. If you did the same, than you have done venipuncture before and you don't have to lie to your patients that you have done it before.

Gee thanks. I'm honored.

tokmom, BSN, RN · Jul 30, 2012

Here's a worry that I have: IV insertion. My school in Philadelphia didn't teach us anything about it aside from how to look for infiltrations. We didn't get to practice in school because of "liability" (is this normal throughout the country?), and we're supposed to learn on the job. I'm VERY nervous; I can't imagine patients are going to be thrilled about guinea pigging for me. I've been watching videos and tourniqueting myself and family members to palpate for veins and spot where valves are so I can avoid them, but still, it's nerve racking.

Really, don't kill yourself with worry. You would be surprised of the nurses that don't know how to start IV's. If you land a job at a facility with an IV team, you will have little to zero opportunity to start them.

We don't have an IV team and nurses coming to our facility are clueless. Their skills long gone.

Practice does make perfect and I'm sure you will become proficient quickly.

My tip for the newbie IV starter is never let the pt know you are using them as a guinea pig. Even if you are shaking in your boots, don't let it show, lol. Go in with confidence and you will do fine. :smokin:

jjones435 · Jul 31, 2012

Congrats!

FLmed · Aug 28, 2012

Thank you, JJones. I'm feeling the love! It's very appreciated.

alibee · Sep 7, 2012

Now that we're a month and a half in, how are the other Newbies doing? I don't know about y'all, but wow, it's overwhelming (and I bought myself a pair of TED stockings so that my legs would stop looking like circus balloons when I got home!). Some days, in spite of having 5 patients (moving up to 6 next week) and 3 discharges immediately followed by 3 admissions during the day, I feel okay. Other days, I'll look at my patient load, see completes with 20 different medications by three different routes all due at 9am and 5pm, and I'll facepalm, knowing that I won't get out of work until around 9pm. Meds still scare the crap out of me, so I'm triple-checking every little thing and bringing the workstation in with me to make sure everything is correct.

I love how fast the days go, though. Most days, they go a little too fast; I feel like I need to clone myself in order to get everything done!

I've had terrible days where I've paged the wrong doctors (repeatedly!), been screamed at by families, and dumped an entire bag of normal saline on a patient because I double-pierced the bag. I've had great days where the patients have written notes to my clinical director saying that I went above and beyond in my care.

I still haven't gotten an IV stick yet. My only consolation is that in my six tries, when my preceptor followed me up, it always took her a couple of tries (and with two of the patients, no one on my floor could stick them) to get a line in.

But overall, it's so gratifying to finally be doing what I've always wanted to do. There are good days and bad days, but right now, I'm loving what I do.

FLmed · Sep 8, 2012

So glad to get report on you, honey! Thanks for checking in! It's a whirlwind, isn't it? I'm not sure how I'm going to get it all done. My ratio at my hospital is 6:1, but I've only had 4 patients at one time so far.. Haven't progressed to your point yet. It's insane. I do wonder how it's humanly possible to do everything we do on 6 patients. One thing I can always assure you of is that I'm safe. :-)