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I gave IV push medications as a student and supervised students in doing so as a preceptor/staff nurse. Nursing students do not have a license and have to be supervised by a licensed nurse (clinical instructor or preceptor). I would gather it comes down to facility policy more than anything else. When I worked in the hospital, there were certain things students were not allowed to do- chemotherapy, blood transfusions, PCAs- but other facilities may have allowed this.
I'm in NC. I graduate from nursing school in May! We've been doing iv pushes since the end of our 1st semester, but we only pushed stiff like protonix and flushes etc!!! In my 2nd (of 5) semester we started pushing Lasix, and Zofran. This past 4th semester we pushed cardiac drugs, with an instructor and staff and monitor in the room. We've not really pushed any emergency drugs that I know of, like atropine, epi, etc. I sm not sure if we could do that as students, but I did see a paramedic student push some epi while in clinical in the ER.
See, students are there to learn. They do not "practice under the RN's license," as is commonly thought, but as part of their education they are supervised in doing RN skills and learning RN assessment that they, as students, are not yet licensed to do independently. I know of no state that says that a student cannot perform an RN-level task as part of his or her supervised education.
Lev, MSN, RN, NP
4 Articles; 2,805 Posts
Are there any states that do not allow RN students to give IV push medications? I know that many states do not allow LPNs to give IV push meds. Many schools do not allow students to give IV push meds and some only allow it in the last semester in the presense of an RN. Are students not allowed to give IV push meds because of liability issues or because it is state law?