solmar

I'm also a new grad and I can totally relate! I started working in September after graduating last May. In many ways orientation is harder than being on your own because, like you said, you have to kind of conform to how someone else does something instead of finding out what works best for you. The best things I have heard as a new grad is that it is okay to still learn...as new grads we aren't somehow expected to have the knowledge that a nurse of 25 years has...we are expected to be safe and to continue to learn. The best thing I have done for myself is to do my best every day, not worry about what other people are saying about me, pray before every shift and continue asking questions even if I feel dumb...and you'll learn who to ask--there are nurses out there who love to teach....THEN people started asking me questions too and that is a great feeling when I can acutally help other nurses!

I'm a new grad and have a question about flushing peripheral IVs. I was taught in nursing school not to flush an iv if there is pressure when attempting to flush it because there could be a blood clot formed at the end of the cannula. So on one of my patients I couldn't get a hep lock to flush, so I called the iv nurse to look at it. She said she was able to get it to flush just fine. I know the cannulas can get bent and that makes them harder to flush, but what I am concerned about is the coagulation. How likely is it that by pushing against pressure I can push a clot into the blood stream and harm the pt? And what about when blood backs up into a hep lock and kinda stays there even when it's flushed? Could that cause coagulation or infection? These are questions I've wanted to ask our iv nurses, but a little too scared to look stupid...thanks for your help.