Soon to be students question...

[NeoRNtobe]

Hi Everyone,

I am a 21 y.o. student who is waiting my accpetance from 3 schools of nursing. Here is my question: I want to be a L&D or NICU nurse. I am also interested in ER nursing. Howeve, I am not set on anything. I will keep an open mind through clinicals. My problem is that I have a chronic fainting problem when it comes to putting in IV's. I was a vet tech though HS and my AA in college. I used to pass out occasionally with them, but I was able to get over it for some reason.

I am mostly scared of doing this repeatedly in school. It is not even like I talk myself into it, sometimes I do not have time to think about it before I feel that "I'm about to faint feeling". So what should I do?

In the meantime I am volunteering as a Cuddler in the NICU at a local hospital, but I don't see any IV's there (Its the NICU stepdown/ feeder/grower).

I also work at Student Health oncampus and I considered talking to the nurses there to see if I can watch them draw blood from patients but I think I would do better attempting it for myself than watching. So should I wait until I am in school and can practice?

Have you teachers ever dealt with someone like me? I dread that time in nursing school. HELP!!

[EmilyCCRN]

I'm in an ADN program and we will have very little IV experience in school. The only exposure we'll have to it is if we see it in the hospital. I'm not sure if all programs are this way, but my school's focus is definitely not venipuncture.

Good luck!