question about nursing school: practicing on each other

bsunurse · Jul 31, 2006

At my school we do not practice anything on one another except for bathing and then we wore a tank top and shorts. You do almost everything on the fake people.

HeartsOpenWide, RN · Jul 31, 2006

I learned to draw blood and give injections on fake people. The schools insurance policy did not cover them to allow us to practice on each other.

not now, RN · Jul 31, 2006

I learned to draw blood and give injections on fake people. The schools insurance policy did not cover them to allow us to practice on each other.

My IV certification class (a class taken after becoming an LVN) made us practice on each other. Three blood draws and three IV starts to pass. I made my boyfriend come in and I started two of my IV's on him.

LoriAlabamaRN · Jul 31, 2006

The only things we practiced on eachother in my RN program were noninvasive procedures, such as bedbaths (wearing bathing suits), vital signs, ear/eye exams, nose/throat exams, respiratory evaluations, abdomen palpations, percussion, and reflex checks, just to name a few. As for the invasive procedures, some of us surreptitiously practiced on eachother, but heaven help us if we were caught!

tater.jake · Jul 31, 2006

In my LPN program, we actually stuck each other for blood draws, IV's, and NG tubes. It was freaky, but interesting and real. We had one student get a needle bent in her vein, but it came out ok. Another student tore her nasal septum when we were practicing NG tubes. As far as getting naked, we did assessments on each other in shorts/swimsuits. For some reason, it is more acceptable to be in a two piece bikini than bra and underwear (i never understood that). I guess it depends on which school you go to. My program is pretty ridiculous at times. It would be fitting at times if there were circus music playing while we did our labs.

doot doot dodie do do doot doot do dee:)

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jul 31, 2006

This is a very common concern of students about to enter nursing programs. You should search this and the pre-nursing forum for the many threads about this. When I was in nursing school 32 years ago we did bed baths on each other and gave each other our first intramuscular injection. We also practiced transferring each other from bed to chair and turning and repositioning each other in the hospital beds. Part of the reason it is done on each other is to give you practice on how to behave professionally and discuss this out of the earshot of patients. Supervising instructors were with us for every single injection we gave each other and stopped any student who was doing the procedure incorrectly. If this kind of thing is a concern to you, I say you need to do some thinking and resolution about it in your mind. You are going to be doing these procedures to thousands of people over a potential career. Why does it make a difference if it is being done to you, beside the obvious concern of being done to you by an amateur? You would be a hypocrite to do to others what you wouldn't dream of letting others do to you in the course of receiving the same treatment. Some day we are all going to be potential patients and will be on the receiving end of these procedures. Then what are you going to do?

Gompers, BSN, RN · Jul 31, 2006

We did some practicing on each other, but nothing embarrassing or invasive. We practiced bed baths FULLY dressed with dry washcloths - our school thought it was ridiculous to actually bathe each other and we agreed! We just went through the motions and then did the real thing on patients in our first clinical rotation.

We never did IVs, injections, blood draws, urinary catheters, or nasogastric tubes on each other. The school did not want that kind of liability. We practiced on mannequins and if the opportunity came up in our clinicals, our instructors would watch us do the procedures on real patients.

We did do lots of exams on each other like Lori described. We also practiced vital signs and patient transfers with each other. However, we were always fully clothed and maybe just moved our stethescopes a little under each other's shirts but nothing embarrassing and you got to choose your partners.

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jul 31, 2006

ONLY thing we practiced on each other was blood pressure readings! That was it. Bed baths on dummies.

Oh, wait, there was ONE other thing, lol: how to turn a patient! For that, we each climbed into a bed so others could practice rolling us :)

BeccaznRN, RN · Jul 31, 2006

ONLY thing we practiced on each other was blood pressure readings! That was it. Bed baths on dummies.
Oh, wait, there was ONE other thing, lol: how to turn a patient! For that, we each climbed into a bed so others could practice rolling us :)

Ditto for our school. We also practiced listening to lung, heart, and bowel sounds on each other but for the abnormal sounds we listened to a programmed mannequin.

luvmy2angels · Jul 31, 2006

We practiced taking all vitals on each other, as well as transfering and head to toe assessment (we wore shorts and a t-shirt). Nothing embarrassing though. All the other stuff we practiced on our mannequins.

MuddaMia · Jul 31, 2006

We have done IV's on each other, physical assessments, and injections