CaliLVN3583

I work for a surgery center that requires all patients to have IVs started and 90% of these patients are elderly. I had never started IVs before on patients since I am still considered a new grad (8 months working). I worked in private duty for 6 months and I have been working for the surgery center for a month now and I can start the IVs on the forearm just fine, but its the back of the hands where Im having trouble. The Dr usually prefers the back of the hand so I keep trying to but for some reason, whenever I try to advance the catheter, the veins end up blowing. In the forearm, I advance the cather just fine but I dont know what Im doing wrong! Is it the angle of the hand? What tips can you guys give?

Hello, I am a Spanish speaking LVN that had 6 months experiecnce doing private duty nursing getting paid $16.50/hr w/no benefits and I was out of work whenever a patient would get hospitalized and I HATED it and it was because I felt like what I was doing was mostly babysitting. I would sit there at the patients home and just give their meds, feed them through their gtubes and suction them when they needed it and while they would sleep I was sitting their like dum di dum dum . So anyways... I kept looking for a new job and they were all mostly home health agencies that were hiring new grads until out of nowhere I replied to this ad where an eye surgial center was looking for a bilingual LVN and I just sent my resume to see if they were still hiring (the ad was posted 3 weeks back) and they called me back right away to come in for an interview. I thought they would tell me I needed a year of exp. like all places do but they said if I like to multi task and do everything FAST and I said yes, please! Because I was so tired of basically doing nothing in private duty. So they told me to come in the next day and Ive been there every since and I LOVE it! :heartbeat They started me at $20/hr w/full benefits and I work M-TH 10 hour days with no work fri, sat, sun ever! It is so fast paced pace that time goes by so quick! I prepare the patients before surgery, put drops in their eyes, start IVs (they didnt care that I had never started one except my IV cert class, they said I would learn fast here and I did), take vitals, receive them after surgery,and discharge them. They also put me in the OR as a circulating nurse so I can learn that as well. My advice for all you LVNS that havent found a job DONT give up! And go to as many interviews as you can until you find a place you love! PS - If you are a bilingual LVN looking for a job in Los Angeles County, let me know as well!

Well Im going to try it out to see if I like it. Im a quick learner and I hope doing this will hopefully get me a better job in the future.

Hi, I am an LVN with 6 months experience doing at home shift care with pediatric patients. I recently got hired by a registry and they are going to send me to a hospital med surg unit. Since Ive only worked at patients home, Im really nervous . What should I expect when I first get there? Do they expect me to know how to do everything since Im from a registry? What will my day be like? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!