Phlebotomy Student Hesitant to Stick

Aliakey · Feb 20, 2011

I am a paramedic/preceptor who has been through the exact same feelings as you described, and believe it or not, you can get past this point. I would actually probably be more worried about any student of mine drooling and dragging his tongue on the ground in anticipation of stuffing a needle into my patient's arm, lol!

You need to always keep several thoughts in mind:

1. You are drawing blood/starting an IV as a *benefit* for your patient. It is a necessary evil that *helps* the patient in the long run, even though it does involve a little pain to begin with.

2. I hope and suspect you have learned all you can at this point to make each venipuncture as aseptic and safe as possible. Remember that. You have no intention of causing harm.

3. You will have "misses". Anyone who denies doing so has either started very few IVs in their lifetime, or is plain out lying. Don't beat yourself up over it, but be sure to learn from it.

4. If your preceptor is not willing to teach or you both clash in one way or another, find another preceptor --- the sooner, the better. You cannot gain confidence in this skill without a good mentor to work with.

5. If you have access to the teaching arms for IVs, use them until you are sick of looking at them. You may be able to stick the vein with your eyes closed, but can you swap tubes smoothly? Work on *something* that may feel like a weak skill for you while gaining more experience in the actual stick on that plastic arm.

6. Study the vein locations daily until you feel confident on where to expect them on your patient. Use the diagrams in your textbook, but more importantly, recruit a willing friend or a classmate's arm and hand. Study their veins. Those stinkers seem to never read a textbook, so you'll find them in all sorts of strange places in some patients. I had one patient who whined that no one could start an IV on him, yet with a little searching, I found his best vein was just above the elbow itself... and he was handcuffed. It left me scratching my head and looking at vein locations in a book once again after shift, lol!

7. Remember that this is a normal feeling early in your venipuncture education; some folks have a greater degree of it than others. You will get over this hump as you gain confidence in yourself and your skills, and don't let the "misses" eat you up. You just need to keep stickin' and you'll enjoy going back to clinicals as long as the environment is agreeable to you.

Hope it helps!

KLarotonda · Feb 21, 2011

Thanks so much! I do really feel that I will get over this, but am beginning to wonder if I will get good at it when I am letting it get into my head so much.

I like your suggestion of going over it over and over so that at least once I have a set routine down that I don't have to be thinking and worrying about missing something as much.

Tomorrow is the day and I really need to get in there and do what I am supposed to do. I haven't really told anyone how much I think and worry about the sticks. When we stuck each other I was able to do it without appearing to be stressed out. That lets me know that I can do it! LOL

I am going to use your thoughts and put them to good use. Hopefully after tomorrow I will be able to say that i got a few sticks and am feeling much better about it!

Thanks sooo much and have a great evening! :)

NeoNurseTX, RN · Feb 21, 2011

When I was in school, I was so focused on technique and the vein that I wasn't even thinking about the fact I was sticking a needle into someone. Of course no on enjoys getting stuck (unless they have some fetish) and I'd just focus on doing it right so I wouldn't have to do it again.