Starting IV therapy for 1st time, eeek

Published

In advance, I thank any and all of you open to reading this and offering feedback.

I'm a LPN in my 1st year, working in an office of integrative medicine. For a doctor's office, the volume and skill set required to perform at this job far exceeds what my expectations were for a doctor's office. Now we're getting ready to start IV therapy (micronutrients, chelation etc). Months ago I took the required IV certification class at a local community college; in hindsight, the class went by way too fast and, besides a fantastic textbook, I feel I gained little to no hands-on experience starting IVs, I don't feel so confident. I've been reading various sources, ranging from complications of IV therapy to nurse practice law etc trying to get geared up. I've even found videos on YouTube with (surprisingly) good images and advice on starting IVs.

Any pointers for me? Anything a new IV therapy nurse should be wary of? Any tactics/strategies that might help me out in the beginning? I already do a substantial amount of venipuncture at the job but I realize this isn't entirely the same. Thank you so much!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Moved to the General Nursing Discussion forum. Good luck to you!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I'm currently recertifying, because I know the course I went through didn't help me enough! I can pass the class and exams, sure, but when it came to actually doing it, I had very little experience.

Which, actually, in my textbook, explains is one of the number one litigation reasons for LPNs doing IV - not enough experience. I was too afraid to lay my license on the line.

My textbook for the class was exceedingly dry and hard to follow at times, and the majority of my class used "IV Therapy Made Incredibly Easy". It explains things in laymen terms and makes a lot of the more difficult points more understandable. Just a thought...if it worked for the 60 of us, maybe it can help you!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

see this thread on allnurses: https://allnurses.com/emergency-nursing/iv-tips-tricks-3793.html - iv tips and tricks

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion