What is this job like?

CollaborateRN · Nov 4, 2009

Does this mean infusion nurses have absolutely no free time? Ouch!

jamonit · Nov 8, 2009

Sorry no one got back to you. Hi! I'm an infusion nurse. I work on an IV Team @ a 400 bed hospital. The IV team nurses are utilized in our facility for outpatient infusion services (usually we give blood products, IV iG, certain injections), start difficult (or every) IV in the hospital--except ICU or ER (they usually have decent skills). Also, our IV team is responsible for insertion of PICCs and PICC line dressing changes for the whole hospital. All that keeps us quite busy. We work 10 hour shifts. Charting is minimal and we enter all the charges for our services. What I like about the job is that it's a specialized skill and we generally get in and get right out. We aren't stuck with the same patients for 12 hours, we see tons of people in a day for 30 minutes or less when we are putting in IVs. Basically, it's the ideal job in my opinion for that fact. Sometimes it's frustrating starting IVs on the floors when we are busy with other things--especially when you go into the room and see big, fat veins. I also do home health care IV infusions on my days off from time to time. The skills are transferable and similar. Once you add IV skills or PICC skills, it's another specialty area for the resume. These skills are quite marketable. Just be in good shape, you do a lot of walking with this job--but it's rewarding to get the veins that are difficult.

CollaborateRN · Nov 12, 2009

Sounds great Jamonit! Did you go into infusion nursing because you felt like you had exceptional IV insertion skills, or did you train after you decided upon the specialty? How do you train to get into this area? What is your role during a PICC insertion? You assist the physician? Did you take any course/certificate? I'd like to know all that you can tell me about this area!

There are no infusion nurses at my hospital. All nurses insert their own IVs. Some days, I get the toughest IVs. Then there are days, when I blow the most beautiful veins. Translated, that means my confidence with lines is seasonal.

Sorry no one got back to you. Hi! I'm an infusion nurse. I work on an IV Team @ a 400 bed hospital. The IV team nurses are utilized in our facility for outpatient infusion services (usually we give blood products, IV iG, certain injections), start difficult (or every) IV in the hospital--except ICU or ER (they usually have decent skills). Also, our IV team is responsible for insertion of PICCs and PICC line dressing changes for the whole hospital. All that keeps us quite busy. We work 10 hour shifts. Charting is minimal and we enter all the charges for our services. What I like about the job is that it's a specialized skill and we generally get in and get right out. We aren't stuck with the same patients for 12 hours, we see tons of people in a day for 30 minutes or less when we are putting in IVs. Basically, it's the ideal job in my opinion for that fact. Sometimes it's frustrating starting IVs on the floors when we are busy with other things--especially when you go into the room and see big, fat veins. I also do home health care IV infusions on my days off from time to time. The skills are transferable and similar. Once you add IV skills or PICC skills, it's another specialty area for the resume. These skills are quite marketable. Just be in good shape, you do a lot of walking with this job--but it's rewarding to get the veins that are difficult.

jamonit · Nov 12, 2009

Sounds great Jamonit! Did you go into infusion nursing because you felt like you had exceptional IV insertion skills, or did you train after you decided upon the specialty? How do you train to get into this area? What is your role during a PICC insertion? You assist the physician? Did you take any course/certificate? I'd like to know all that you can tell me about this area!

There are no infusion nurses at my hospital. All nurses insert their own IVs. Some days, I get the toughest IVs. Then there are days, when I blow the most beautiful veins. Translated, that means my confidence with lines is seasonal.

Hi! I became interested in infusion nursing after working home health infusions. I did a lot of iv ig infusions in people's homes where I was the only IV resource. That made me work hard at increasing my skill level. I never was that great at IVs until I had the time to really focus on it. I still miss, especially if the patient is dehydrated, nervous, or if I get distracted (and if they are just super hard!) We do all the PICC insertions ourselves. We do the sterile procedure at the patient's bedside. Our role is to explain the procedure, obtain consent, insert the PICC, and then have the radiologist read the xray of the PICC tip location. (You almost always want lower SVC). I work 12-10 shifts 4 days a week. I took an online course before they trained me for insertion.

After you do 40 ivs a day, you get good! Just keep practicing. I love what I do. So much more fun and rewarding than floor nursing! I hope that answers your questions!

medconslt · Nov 14, 2009

I supervise intravenous nurses for a national pharmaceutical company who see their patients in the home care setting. The first thing you need to look review before you change between specialties or even jobs, is yourself. What component of your present situation do you enjoy and grab your interest? I have had nurses want to transfer into home care or intravenous nursing because it is something new. I find out what are your interests so you can move in the direction that is best for you.

Regarding intravenous therapy, the nurses we work employ need to have good assessment skills. Not only are you doing a head to toe assessment, but need to assess the IV site and response to IV therapy. You need to be aware of your pharmacy knowledge or have ready reference to a pharmacist. Not every nurse I employ is able to initiate a peripheral, as a majority of the patients have central lines as they are on therapies with a duration of greater than 2 weeks or five IV start days. My staff need to have a BSN education or greater (Harding & Petrick, 2008). We encourage continued education and have each nurse presents a topic every quarter.

Most of our nurses pick their hours. Many like to see patients as early as 0600 to avoid traffic but they are home before 1500. This works well for parents who want to spend time with family after work. We have nurses work 20-40 hours a week depending on their needs.

rbyrdrn · Nov 17, 2009

During 2008 I worked part-time for a Health care services- Home Infusion Co. I worked independently educating, maintained various IV devices, and monitored pts IV therapies. I loved it! Unfortunately I could not trust that I would get consistent hrs and remained in the ER dept, eventually quiting the part time thing. I also could not get use to on call, (never worked on call) so to get a phone call late in the evening because someone didn't know how to change out the batteries in their pump got to me. I did see where there are a lot of independent infusion facilities in the lower 48, so working in a hospital is not always the option.

CollaborateRN · Nov 19, 2009

I want to believe that not all infusion nurse jobs are on-call... or are they?

During 2008 I worked part-time for a Health care services- Home Infusion Co. I worked independently educating, maintained various IV devices, and monitored pts IV therapies. I loved it! Unfortunately I could not trust that I would get consistent hrs and remained in the ER dept, eventually quiting the part time thing. I also could not get use to on call, (never worked on call) so to get a phone call late in the evening because someone didn't know how to change out the batteries in their pump got to me. I did see where there are a lot of independent infusion facilities in the lower 48, so working in a hospital is not always the option.

CollaborateRN · Nov 19, 2009

Everything else sounds ideal. However, if not all nurse are able to initiate a peripheral, what are your basic-skills requirements before you employ an RN as an "Infusion RN."

Not every nurse I employ is able to initiate a peripheral, as a majority of the patients have central lines as they are on therapies with a duration of greater than 2 weeks or five IV start days.

CollaborateRN · Nov 19, 2009

So, you basically started infusion nursing with the skills you had on the floor, and then worked hard on developing them by yourself on your new job? That was brave!

Hi! I became interested in infusion nursing after working home health infusions. I did a lot of iv ig infusions in people's homes where I was the only IV resource. That made me work hard at increasing my skill level. I never was that great at IVs until I had the time to really focus on it.!