STARTING IVs............OMG..............

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My friend from nursing school recently started her first RN job, and she had a bad third day where all the new grads were testing out on skills. The first skill of the day was starting an IV, all the other girls (ABOUT 30 OF THEM) had all had experience starting IVs from their school. My friend was the only one there who had no experience with it what so ever. They made a spectacle of her like "What school are you from? I can't believe you have never done that before." She was almost in tears. We had never even learned how to tie a turniquet!!!!!!! I must have heard about 8 times during nursing school from various instructors that we will learn from our facility where we work on how to start IVs!!! Did our school lie to us? My friend is very upset and we are feeling inferior to other newcommers. What kind of IV experience do you guys have from school?????

Specializes in School, Camp, Hospice, Critical Care.
What kind of IV experience do you guys have from school????? [/center]

Well, here in Southern NH, none of the programs teach IVs--not the ADNs, not the BSNs. We are told we will be taught the skill at our first job. I'm currently in NG orientation and of the 12 of us from 4 different schools, no one had ever done an IV.

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Well, here in Southern NH, none of the programs teach IVs--not the ADNs, not the BSNs. We are told we will be taught the skill at our first job. I'm currently in NG orientation and of the 12 of us from 4 different schools, no one had ever done an IV.

I'll vouch for that- I graduated from a NH nursing school 2 years ago, and IV starts were part of our new grad orientation. If I remember, the school's reason for not teaching IV starts was that we couldn't do it as students on the floor, and each facility had different policy/procedure for training anyway and we would be better off being trained by our employers. Or something.

Anyway, I graduated fine, and learned IV starts on the job just fine.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
Maybe the liability waiver wouldn't hold up in court, but as far as I know there hasn't been any lawsuits or problems like that. And we all felt much better prepared in clinical by practicing on each other. I'd rather do that than have little or no instruction in school. Seriously ... who wants to start out as a new grad never having done IV's? I wouldn't want to be in that position.

:coollook:

For the first 5 years I was a nurse, I felt the same way..........my school had the rubber arm with the thick vein and 14-gauge angiocaths too, and I never even attempted one on a real patient until I'd been out of school over two years! As a result, I was TERRIBLE at it, and never had any confidence at all until about three years ago when I was working as a resident care manager and had no choice but to learn, since we had a lot of skilled-care patients whose PICC lines went bad and they needed peripheral IVs until the PICC could be replaced. Then, when I went back to hospital work, I got a chance to get really good at them because our facility has no IV team---we all do our own starts. It's just too bad it took so long to feel comfortable with IVs; this is such a vital skill, I think schools do students a disservice by not teaching it, or making it so unrealistic that it's not even worth doing (if there's anyone who CAN'T hit that pencil-thick rubber vein with a 14-gauge, they've got no business being a nurse!!). :stone

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No IV starts at my school either....You are not alone and I am sorry your friend was made to feel inferior.....Being a new grad is hard enough without others treating you poorly. :o

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For the first 5 years I was a nurse, I felt the same way..........my school had the rubber arm with the thick vein and 14-gauge angiocaths too, and I never even attempted one on a real patient until I'd been out of school over two years! As a result, I was TERRIBLE at it, and never had any confidence at all until about three years ago when I was working as a resident care manager and had no choice but to learn, since we had a lot of skilled-care patients whose PICC lines went bad and they needed peripheral IVs until the PICC could be replaced. Then, when I went back to hospital work, I got a chance to get really good at them because our facility has no IV team---we all do our own starts. It's just too bad it took so long to feel comfortable with IVs; this is such a vital skill, I think schools do students a disservice by not teaching it, or making it so unrealistic that it's not even worth doing (if there's anyone who CAN'T hit that pencil-thick rubber vein with a 14-gauge, they've got no business being a nurse!!). :stone

My school also offers an optional IV course were you can get more practice. And, once you're checked off in clinical, you can practice even more through the student extern program, where you work as a student nurse at local hospitals.

I agree ... it's such a vital skill that you need at least some "real" exposure to it in school. And, speaking of IV teams, some hospitals in my area have eliminated them because, they found that the nurses started losing their IV skills when they didn't do them anymore. It's definitely a skill that requires a lot of practice, IMHO.

:coollook:

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As in all skills it is entirely possible to go thru your compleat RN program and not have a single chance to practice. Relax. One or two sticks does not proficient make in the case of lab draws and IV starts. So. Ask the nurses who guide you in orientation for tips and multiple chances to practice. Do not be afraid to attempt the impossible....we ALL miss. Good luck.

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One or two sticks does not proficient make in the case of lab draws and IV starts.

True. But we do more than that in my program. Still, even if we had only two or three sticks, something's gotta be better than nothing.

:coollook:

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Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

I can't believe how much this varies amongst schools. I am just starting the second semester of a five semester registered practical nursing program and will be learning iv starts in the next month or two. I can't imagine being expected to learn this skill after school.I would not like to be learning this on the job.

Good luck to all fellow students out there.:p

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Specializes in CV Surgery Step-down.

After a skills lab demonstration and a check off on a rubber arm, I proptly came home and stuck my husband after he had a glass or two of wine!:) He was a good sport about it. Haven't done one on an actual patient, though. I'm in my third semester. I worry about being one of those students who doesn't do a Foley, IV or trach care while I'm in school. Teeny bit worried...:o

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Specializes in NICU.

We didn't learn it in school either - said we'd learn on the job later. I graduated in 1998. We weren't allowed to stick each other, either, which had been their previous practice. Everything went back to their liabity if we accidentally got HIV or hepatitis from an accidental needle stick. Yes, that can happen in the hospital, too, they said, but at least then it's NECESSARY to stick the patient - in a nursing school lab, they said, it was not worth the risk. WHATEVER!!!

Because my first RN job was at the university hospital associated with my school, they knew that many new grads had no IV experience, so they had a one-day IV lab during the hospital orientation - which included sticking a fake arm and THEN sticking each other with IVs, butterflies, and vacu-tainer needles.

Because I was headed to the NICU, they excused me from this entire day. As a result, I've never stuck anyone (for blood or an IV) over 15 pounds!!!

One thing I did notice - ALL the ADN nurses had IV experience, hardly ANY of the BSN students did. Sometimes I wish BSN programs (like the one I attended) would get their uppity heads out of the clouds and realize that while they're teaching us more "advanced" things like management and research, maybe they should actually let us practice NURSING at some point before they hand us a diploma. :angryfire

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Specializes in OB, lactation.

My program halfway does it... we are having an IV lab day coming up soon, but a lot of our students graduate without doing them... same philosophy as someone else posted (pasted below). I totally think we should be able to do them... I know we won't be able to do enough to be comfortable but no one wants to graduate & start a job and do a big procedure like that on someone for the first time (at least I don't... as a patient I would expect my nurse to be able to do it, understanding that people miss sometimes).

I still haven't even done a Foley... & I had the perfect chance in OB... with an epidural patient but the nurse was having a bad day and in a hurry and wouldn't let me do it! :(

We can't do IV's yet, but I have found that it helps in getting exposed to procedures if I always tell my nurse "let me know if you have anything you want me to help you with" & "do you have any other procedures?"

"My instructors told us when we asked why we never learned these skills, " You will learn how to do them in the facility that you are working at, depending on your unit or hospital there are iv teams that start all the iv's or lab techs that draw all blood in some hospitals. If your hospital is not one of these places you will receive training in this skill. The also told us something to the effect of any person can learn how to draw blood or start an IV, but that their job was to teach us how to be an RN, that it does not take an RN to start an iv or draw blood. It makes me feel better to think about this when I have a hard time sticking a pt. It sounds kind of harsh and please do not flame me for this comment. I just feel that starting IV's and drawing blood is like other skills we learn in nursing school like inserting foley's doing straight caths, ng tubes (etc.) You can teach someone how to physically do these skills but it takes the knowledge of an RN or LPN who knows the meaning and rationales behind these practices and what adverse effects to look for and how to treat them."

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Specializes in ACNP-BC.

I just graduated from a BSN program in Mass. My nursing school does not teach us how to draw blood or how to put in IVs. We were only taught how to hang IV bags, give IV pushes, etc. So I will have to learn how to start IVs once I start as an RN in my new job!

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