knurse11

Hey Everyone! I've done travel nursing with American Mobile for about a year now. No major complaints thus far, but I would like to do shorter assignments this year and they're not really offering that. Any other agencies you would reccomend that are better for those types of assignments? Like 4-8 weeks? Amn is big on 12 weeks or more... Karen

I recently switched jobs. At my old place of work we used angio caths and I must say wasn't too shabby with them, especially given the average age of the pt on my old floor was 80-85. Now, at this new hospital we use the butterfly/intima catheters and I went from being one of the people you would ask to help you place a line to someone who now dreads when I have to place one/often has to ask for help. I'm dumb founded. The patients I have are actually usually younger, and I've always heard butterfly needles are significantly easier to place. It seems like the whole butterfly needle style needle and me don't get along period because the hospital I'm at now also has me doing blood draws which is new for me and I'm quite crappy with those also. Does anyone else prefer or feel angios our easier? Does anyone notice any differences in when u insert one or the other? It seems to me that the butterfly/intimas blow easier and that u also have to be a little more patient for the flash. I feel like with butterflys/intimas theres no way to advance the actual catheter also...you have to push plastic and needle in all at once before removing the needle, where as with angios once you hit the vein u could just slide the plastic right in with less of a needle advance...with the intimas theres no way i feel to slide it in because of the way u pull the the needle out. Tips on the best technique for intimas? I think they're a great system really safe, great for blood draws and bloodless system too. I know I must be doing something terribly wrong... I don't know...I'm so frustrated I wanna be good at both/be prepared to use whatever supplies are at my disposal...argh. Thanks!