RN's who cannot insert IV's being Fired???

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Hello! just wanna know if it is mandatory for all RN's to insert IV's? Because a fellow nurse who is more than well experienced and very skillful in other procedures and previously IV certified too who refused to do IV's was terminated. Nurse claims she developed phobia to it after a very bad experience with a patient. Can a person really be forced to do anything that she is not comfortable and has developed an aversion to it. Is it fair to the hospital and to the nurse? Thanks!

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If it is a part of the job description and IV's are a large part of that nurse's job, then yes, she is not fulfilling her end of the bargain.

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I'm with Tazzi. If you can't do the job, you don't have a right to keep it.

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I think getting fired is pretty harsh. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and if you have good teamwork you can help each other out. Maybe the no-IV lady could do something for the other nurse while he/she is putting in an IV for her.

I guess it depends on the culture and nature of the floor. On my floor, we don't put in many IV's (they usually have central lines) so when we do have one, we help each other out. But if you're on a floor where you're putting in IV's constantly, it could be a problem. It seems to me that with the nursing shortage, it would make more sense to work with the nurse and try to help her get over phobia. It doesn't seem like it's worth losing an experienced nurse.

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Wow, Firing The Employee Is Still More Unproductive. Most Hospitals Have Nurse Education. They Could Put Her In Another Iv Class Just To Decrease Her Fear And Brush Up On Her Skills. It Doesn't Sound Like A Case Of Not Being Able To Do The Job. What Happened To Good Old Fashion Work Ethics And Teaming? A Nurse I Used To Work With Absolutley Hated Iv's And Blood Draws And I Loved It. So We Would Trade Tasks. I Would Start Her Iv And Document While She Did One Of My Treatments On A Patient I Had Lost Patience With. We Worked Really Well Together And Would Report To Each Other On The Tasks We Traded. I Wanted To Help Her. Now, I Did Work With Another Nurse Who Was The Laziest Person I Had Ever Met. She Would Convince You That She Was So Busy She Needed Your Help, So You Help Her Out By Doing Some Of Her Treatments. Then You Can't Find Her Anywhere, You Search And Search Because Now You Are Behind In Your Own Tasks, And Where Do You See Her When You Look Out The Window, Sitting In A Chair Smoking. And If All Her Stuff Wasn't Done, She Would Go Straight To The Don And Tell On You. You'd Just Be Burning Over It. It Took Our Don 3 Months To Figure Out The Truth And She Fired That Girl. You Do Have To Be Carefull About Who You Help.

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. But if you're on a floor where you're putting in IV's constantly, it could be a problem. It seems to me that with the nursing shortage, it would make more sense to work with the nurse and try to help her get over phobia. It doesn't seem like it's worth losing an experienced nurse.

I think that's why I don't have much sympathy. We put in IVs constantly on my unit and I don't mind helping other nurses out if they weren't able to get a stick just like they help me if I'm having trouble. To me, that's different than just refusing to put in an IV because you don't want to.

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I think that's why I don't have much sympathy. We put in IVs constantly on my unit and I don't mind helping other nurses out if they weren't able to get a stick just like they help me if I'm having trouble. To me, that's different than just refusing to put in an IV because you don't want to.

:yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat:

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A) Inserting IVs is a pretty universal, generic RN skill -- I think it's v. reasonable to hold RNs responsible for being competent and willing to do this at work.

B) Because of (v. appropriate) confidentiality rules, we v. rarely know the full story when a colleague/peer gets fired -- the person who was fired can tell whatever version of the events s/he wants, and the supervisors cannot tell their "side" of the story ...

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A) Inserting IVs is a pretty universal, generic RN skill -- I think it's v. reasonable to hold RNs responsible for being competent and willing to do this at work.

I was not taught IV skills in nursing school. I am terrible at putting in IV's. I only work two days a week and get very little chance to "practice". I feel so bad having to stick my patients multiple times to get a working heplock. I think the patients deserve a well trained, well practiced IV nurse, not me.

Luckily my coworkers help my patients out and I am more than happy to assist them with whatever I can. I have things that I excel at and I am always willing to share my skills with others.

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Specializes in Critical Care.
I was not taught IV skills in nursing school.

Lots of nursing schools don't teach IV skills; or teach it by allowing one, maybe two attempts.

It's one of those skills that's supposed to be learned 'OJT".

If you don't practice it; how can you become decent at it? The fact that you don't use it often and you aren't very good at it should inspire you to use EVERY opportunity to increase your experience and expertise at it.

IV starts ARE routine job description skills for most RN environments. Saying "I can't start IVs anymore" is like saying, "I just can't pass meds anymore" in lots of RN jobs.

If you can't do your job, then you should find a job that you CAN do.

Personally, I would be highly annoyed if a co-worker decided that they could just dump on me and the rest of the shift a significant part of thier job because, "Oh, I just can't handle that anymore."

If this was an issue of cleaning poop, would you think that her co-workers should just be 'team players' and clean her pts everytime they poop, so that she doesn't have to? I mean, 'that's just so stressful to do', right?

I don't know, maybe I'm just a little unsympathetic, but if I just couldn't start IVs anymore, rather than waiting to be fired; I'd find a job that doesn't require me to start IVs. It's not like they aren't out there.

~faith,

Timothy.

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A) Inserting IVs is a pretty universal, generic RN skill -- I think it's v. reasonable to hold RNs responsible for being competent and willing to do this at work.

B) Because of (v. appropriate) confidentiality rules, we v. rarely know the full story when a colleague/peer gets fired -- the person who was fired can tell whatever version of the events s/he wants, and the supervisors cannot tell their "side" of the story ...

as a first quarter nursing student we have already been told that while we will learn on the "sim people" in lab, it would be rare for us to have the opportunity to start an iv during the course of the program. (RN) Also some of the nurses who are lab instructors and advisors say that they have very rarely done iv insertion as well. I really REALLY hope that the RN managers who are in charge of hiring take into account the fact that new grads lately aren't gettin the practice in real live people. A class would be most helpful for new grads and nurses who are coming from hospitals or departments where there is an "IV team" who does all of the sticks. We are all disappointed and worried about this gap in our education, but we are in a very highly rated program so I hope that the theory and practice on the SIM people will at least get us some sort of practice.

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both hospitals in my area used to have iv teams; now they don't. what then?

suebird

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