Practice on each other?

[mae0218]

Just curious about something. I've seen pictures of nursing students practicing injections (and other things) on each other. Does your school do that? I think it's a bit odd...like it would be too much of a liability.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Many many schools have moved away from the practice of invasive skills such as injections and IV starts on fellow students. However, many still require students to perform physical assessments on each other, with the exception of breast/genital exams. My school recommended sports bras and bike shorts, but we spent pretty much an entire semester in gowns with our fellow students.

[BostonFNP, APRN]

As above, most program have moved away from invasive procedures on classmates. Many schools use sim dummies for this.

Physical exam still needs to be done on a training partner.

Sent from my iPhone.

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

We do assessments and vitals on each other. We do not do injections or IV starts on each other. Although we did administer eye drops to each other. Just wetting drops. You have to start somewhere.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I think it's a bit odd...like it would be too much of a liability.

The paperwork signed by students upon admission relieves the school of liability for certain occurrences, such as practicing skills on each other.

[RunBabyRN]

We did some, like IVs, injections and physical assessments. However, anything involving needles was first performed on practice arms or pads.

[PVCCHoo]

We don't, but I think it is a little unfair to the patients that our first stick ever on a real person is on a paying client. I am sure the AIDS epidemic, etc in the 80's put an end to schools allowing student nurses to practice on each other. I think it would be good experience. Those rubber arms are not really the same. I just did this skill this week and would have been cool with practicing on each other.

Health Assessment is kind of limited when we are doing these assessments with our clothes on etc. I try to work with other guys and we take our shirts off etc to make it as real as possible.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I am sure the AIDS epidemic, etc in the 80's put an end to schools allowing student nurses to practice on each other.

This was untrue in my situation. I was born in '81, the year that AIDS was identified. The Los Angeles area practical/vocational nursing program that I attended in '04/'05 required us students to practice sticks on each other. 2005 was more than two decades after the AIDS epidemic first surfaced.

[Girlafraid13]

We practiced on each other. I had a classmate with a bad habit of saying oops for everything. Not something you want to hear after being poked.

[LPN709]

In my Lpn program we practiced on each other :) not much but for our IV therapy class I know I got stuck at least 5-6 times. It was fun though!

[rob4546, ADN, BSN, MSN]

We practiced everything on each other except genital exams and foleys. I even let a fellow student try to drop a NG tube on me in class. I wanted to know how it felt before I had to do it on one of my patients.

We had to have a successful IV start on a classmate before we were signed off to do this in the field. Waivers were signed by all, without complaints.

[rubato, ASN, RN]

We did, and thank god! Practicing venipuncture on a fake arm doesn't prepare you for a vein that moves, and a person that jumps as soon as you poke them. Or someone who is afraid. It is an important aspect of nursing school, in my opinion. I let almost everyone in my class stick me for their first time because I have amazing veins. Then, they moved on to harder people.