I met him yesterday, and now he's letting me push a needle into his vein for my first time.
There's something so intimate and bonding about the IV approval course. In my state EMT-Bs are allowed to start IVs, administer D50 IV, administer Narcan intranasally, take blood, and use glucometers after taking a 24-hour course with an 8-hour clinical rotation.
Our first live sticks are on each other. It's nerve-wracking. I'm standing over his arm with a 20 gauge staring at the juicy vein I selected. I insert the needle and start advancing the catheter over it, but I pull the needle back out too quick and blood starts gushing every where. I tamponade (apply pressure to) the vein as my fellow student turns a bit white in the face. Miraculously, I was able to save the stick and get a successful line in by starting a little fluid going and finishing the catheter.
Now my own arms have a multitude of little bruises and puncture wounds from being practiced on. It's a surprisingly easy skill to learn, but a difficult one to master.
about me
- Lucid
- United States
- I'm an EMT/CNA that just got hired as an ICU tech. I have a bit of experience in the PACU, OB-GYN, and as an amusement park EMT. I just finished my prerequisites for nursing school but due to financial situation will be working full-time for a while before going to nursing school. I live in a little house in the ghetto with the love of my life and two rescued puppies.
4 comments:
I love sticking people! Shepp
As long as you keep working on your technique, you will get better. After a while it will feel more comfortable to be more aggressive with the needle. It is the slow IV start that is most painful for the patient, similar to slowly removing tape from a patient.
In my state EMT-Bs are allowed to start IVs, administer D50 IV, administer Narcan intranasally, take blood, and use glucometers after taking a 24-hour course with an 8-hour clinical rotation.
Whereas in most other places it takes a year or two of training and hundreds of hours of clinical rotations.
Sorry, but what you just said scares the snot out of me.
Whoever posted anonymous, you need to open your mind a little. All the skills listed by lucid are pretty simple skills. Also ALS is not always able to respond due rural areas or staffing. I work in an area where basics can use an ET tube, push epi, and use glucometers and pulse ox's. In NYC they are doing a study on basics giving albuterol via nebulizers. I'm sorry you are scared, but look a little beyond your nose. JS
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