You're TERRIBLE at IV starts?? omg!

Mrs. SnowStormRN, RN · Apr 22, 2011

I SUUUUCK at them! I never had to do them in the last 8yrs of nursing. Boy boy boy, NOT GOOD! I need more PRAcTICE!!!

Bobbkat · Apr 22, 2011

I'm oddly enough pretty decent with IV's, but terrible at doing draws. I cross my fingers that we WON'T be doing a septic work-up whenever I'm up for first admit on the unit, because I just KNOW I'll end up torturing a baby in an effort to get their blood cultures. I can get in a vein, but I just can't get enough blood to flow down the tubing without blowing the vein. Grrr!

DPSGraduateNurse · Apr 22, 2011

I took a phlebotomy course - it has definitely helped in my clinicals.

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN · Apr 22, 2011

Starting IVs or drawing blood isn't what nursing is all about. That is just one skill in the entire package.

That said....I stink at it. I don't get the opportunity that often to start them or draw blood. Since I only work PT and most of our pts are coming in for longer term IVs and normally have a double lumen picc in place or a midline for shorter term use..I don't always have the opportunity. We also have a phleb that comes in M W F for draws.

When the chance to do one comes up...yeah, I try just to keep up the practice and its a 50/50 chance. Most often, I get the other nurse (great LPN) to get the lab or IV started.

So...unless it is a critical part of your job duties I wouldn't be making it the end all be all.

netglow, ASN, RN · Apr 22, 2011

Well OP, some of your patients in your endo center have been on bowel prep prior to you seeing them.

JSlovex2 · Apr 24, 2011

I've never, ever drawn blood by way of venipuncture. The only time I ever draw blood is when the patient has a PICC line.
Therefore, the person with less education who has taken a short training class (but performs 50 venipunctures on a routine day) is going to be better at drawing blood than me since they always do it and I never do it. Practice makes perfect. :)

i get what you're saying, but i guess i'm speaking from my experience and the way things work where i work. when blood needs to be drawn - we call the lab for a phlebotomist to come up and draw it. however, there are times when phlebotomy is slooow to get there at which time nurses will ask the CNAs (who have had the 3 day training) to draw it for them. it's rare that a CNA would have to draw blood either, so it's likely that they wouldn't be great at it either. in which case - after 2 sticks - the nurse would be expected to take over. i like to have the ability to do the things that i am (or might be) expected to do so i take every opportunity to do (or at least watch) procedures that might not be so routine.

OCNRN63, RN · Apr 24, 2011

I am horrible at them. My "worst" story (it's hard to choose) had to be the guy who actually had good veins. I could see them, feel them, the works! I missed him a few times and he kept encouraging me to try again and telling me that I would get it eventually. After about eleven tries (seriously) I finally refused to stick him anymore. The next person who tried got him the very first time.
My "best" story was a man who got confused every night and pulled his IV out. He was a hard stick, and the first night I had him I tried several times before passing the task off to someone more qualified. The next night, he pulled his IV out right on schedule. He started fidgeting a bit when he saw me coming, as if to say, "Noooooo! Please don't hurt me agaaaaain!" I got him on the first try, somehow, and it has been one of my proudest moments!

You stuck him 11 times? I'm sorry, but that is unconscionable. After two or three failed sticks you should have gotten someone else. I'm surprised there was anything left to stick for the poor person who had to try after you stuck him so many times.

In my facility, you would have gotten a serious write up for that, at the very least.

AggieNurse99, BSN, RN · Apr 24, 2011

I'm pretty good, but I have my days. Its always when a certain older nurse is working too, a know-it-all type. Argh!

Using a warm blanket for the arm for 10 min or so always helps me. Apparently at my hospital the (now out of commission) IV team had a Sono machine, which is stocked with longer angiocaths. This has helped immensly on the obese patients. I also ask all my hard sticks where their 'lucky' vein is.

MomRN0913 · Apr 24, 2011

I got spoiled in the ICU with central access. I was never that great. I am a little weird because I can get the hard sticks, but the easy ones I mess up on it. I think because in my head I am so worked up that I should be getting it, that if I don't I am a real idiot. The hard ones I have in my head, if Idon't get it, It's OK. Then low and behold I get access. Weird. But, I know some nurses who have been nurses for YEARS and are admittedly not so good at getting IV's.

Aeterna, BSN, RN · Apr 25, 2011

I'm awful at starting IVs! Granted, I've only been out of school for about a year but...it's like veins know I'm coming at them and they hide from me!!

Even the clinical educator, who was trying to certify me, told me about needing to start an IV on another nurse's patient and that he had "juicy" veins. She even found a great vein for me, practically begging to be stuck. And I missed it. Even the clinical educator was shocked.

But every time my patient needs an IV, they seem to have the worst veins =_=;

CFitzRN, ADN · Apr 25, 2011

Are there any nurses that aren't the greatest at starting IVs? If so, how many years have you been a nurse, and who do you get to help you start IVs?
I'm ok at them, but MAN.. today at the endoscopy center I was only able to get one started!! I blew one vein, and the other one rolled on me (I just started there PRN). I thought I was pretty good at getting them, but apparently not. Oh well, I need the practice. For some reason I have it in my head that all nurses are good at starting IVs... don't know why I think that, lol.

I worked an endo clinic for a year PRN - started on post-op. Easy peazy. Then I started to float to pre-op and started doing IVs. My first day up there I hit 9 IVs in a row. I was so cocky, I thought I was the shizz. Well I should have known something bad would happen. I didn't hit another IV for the next 2 days. Then I got my current FT job so I stopped working at the endo clinic. I didn't get the chance to "get back on the horse" so to speak, so I'm not sure I could hit them easily now or not. I started one at the doctor's office I worked at sometimes and it was no problem so I have hope but I'm just not sure...

ctruscott · Aug 22, 2015

I've been at day surgery clinic for 2 1/2 years and being the preop nurse means starting IVs is one of my critical skills. Our clinic is small and I only get the chance to start about 16 IVs a month. Needless to say, my skills are still that of beginner nurse level. I have lost confidence lately because I blew 4 starts in one day and we only had 5 IVs to start to begin with. Now every time I try to start one, I pretty much blow it. I am seriously considering giving up my job because my IVs are so sketchy. I've watched other nurses start IVs, I've ordered an IV arm model to help me, and other than taking a full-fledged phlebotomy course (which I don't need all the blood draw info, just venipuncture) I don't know what else to do. I'm very self conscious about not being good at this. I absolutely love doing the IVs, but seriously I think I'm a very incompetent nurse because I haven't mastered this yet. I should mention that I only started doing IVs for the first time since 2013. HELP - quickly because I am going to give my notice by end of September if I cannot get some answers.