Jeepluv77 Posted March 6, 2009 Posted March 6, 2009 So, please tell me I'm not the only one to have gone through this. I've got my first day of als clinicals on the 14th and as excited as I am, I'm freaking out. I'm absolutely petrified of having to stick a patient, administer a potentially dangerous drug, etc. At first I was so confident, I've been doing great in my practicals. As soon as I saw the clinical schedule was up something changed. Now I'm a nervous wreak. I so hope this gets easier. I know that I know my stuff(at least what we've been taught to date) but I can not get past the fear of messing up with a patient. Like missing an iv and having to start it again. Any suggestions? Will I get used to this at some point?
dallasdame Posted March 6, 2009 Posted March 6, 2009 Everyone misses IVs, noone is perfect. Just do your best and everything will fall into place. Stay confidant!
scott33 Posted March 6, 2009 Posted March 6, 2009 Do you not have a rotation in a phlebotomy lab first?
Jeepluv77 Posted March 6, 2009 Author Posted March 6, 2009 Everyone misses IVs, noone is perfect. Just do your best and everything will fall into place. Stay confidant! Thank you! I'm trying. I don't know why I'm so nervous. I'm usually not like this. The woman that's precepting my shift <cough> isn't the nicest sometimes either so that doesn't help. Thank you! I'm trying. I don't know why I'm so nervous. I'm usually not like this. The woman that's precepting my shift <cough> isn't the nicest sometimes either so that doesn't help. Nope Scott. It's straight to the er. We've stuck a few dummy arms but that's about it.
spenac Posted March 6, 2009 Posted March 6, 2009 We did dummy arms then idiot (student) arms before getting to go do clinicals. We had to do at least 5 sucessful on fellow students prior to doing clinicals. It was stick for a stick. I feel sorry for the patients that your school is letting the patients be your first live sticks.
Jeepluv77 Posted March 6, 2009 Author Posted March 6, 2009 We did dummy arms then idiot (student) arms before getting to go do clinicals. We had to do at least 5 sucessful on fellow students prior to doing clinicals. It was stick for a stick. I feel sorry for the patients that your school is letting the patients be your first live sticks. That's what I'm saying. They said we aren't allowed to stick each other. Ridiculous. A friend offered to let me stick her but of course I don't have any needles here. There's no way I'm gonna take one from school. But yeah, I don't think that's fair to the patient. We've also been advised by a couple proctors not to let a patient know that we are new students, especially not our first stick. But I feel they have a right to know and make the decision on whether or not they want us to do it. Any thoughts on that? I just know if I was that pt and they missed the iv and then I find out they are this new I'd be furious that I wasn't informed.
spenac Posted March 6, 2009 Posted March 6, 2009 That's what I'm saying. They said we aren't allowed to stick each other. Ridiculous. A friend offered to let me stick her but of course I don't have any needles here. There's no way I'm gonna take one from school. But yeah, I don't think that's fair to the patient. We've also been advised by a couple proctors not to let a patient know that we are new students, especially not our first stick. But I feel they have a right to know and make the decision on whether or not they want us to do it. Any thoughts on that? I just know if I was that pt and they missed the iv and then I find out they are this new I'd be furious that I wasn't informed. We are required to tell the patient that we are a student and part of our education is performing skills such as IV starts and blood draws(or what ever skill) under the supervision of someone experienced so that when we are alone we will be able to appropriatly take care of an emergent patient. If it is OK with you I will now start this IV(or other). Suprisingly I have not had anyone refuse to allow me to perform any skill. I have had some people with chronic health problems even give me valuable advise. So never lie to your patient, and listen to them. Many of them will say no one can start an IV except this spot and point. It might not be the hand might be upper arm, who knows but they often know.
Jeepluv77 Posted March 6, 2009 Author Posted March 6, 2009 We are required to tell the patient that we are a student and part of our education is performing skills such as IV starts and blood draws(or what ever skill) under the supervision of someone experienced so that when we are alone we will be able to appropriatly take care of an emergent patient. If it is OK with you I will now start this IV(or other). Suprisingly I have not had anyone refuse to allow me to perform any skill. I have had some people with chronic health problems even give me valuable advise. So never lie to your patient, and listen to them. Many of them will say no one can start an IV except this spot and point. It might not be the hand might be upper arm, who knows but they often know. We are required to tell them we are students, too. They just told us to leave the brand new student part out and let them think we've been at this at least for awhile. I just feel that's still a lie to omit the fact that I've never stuck a human. I'm actually a hard stick despite being skinny with huge veins. I've got valves like you wouldn't believe. Therefore, I fully intend to listen to everything they say. I've had a lot of nurses think they know more than me and miss the iv over and over. Or try to thread through the valve which hurts really bad and has actually caused phlebitis all the way up my forearm. I think that's part of my fears too. I really don't want to hurt a patient.
spenac Posted March 6, 2009 Posted March 6, 2009 I think that's part of my fears too. I really don't want to hurt a patient. What helped me the most was when someone with lots of experience said it doesn't hurt me. He didn't mean go in wrecklessly and do damage, but rather just confidently stick and put it in the vein. If you sit there and try slow threading it hurts more and patients tense up. Plus you might give up when in fact you have not actually gone far enough. I wish I could tell you that a human is just like a dummy but I would be lieing. Make sure you can palpate the vein, forget seeing it. If you can't palpate it you want get it even if you see it.
Jeepluv77 Posted March 6, 2009 Author Posted March 6, 2009 Thank you for helping me out with this. I'm really hoping I can just get in there and do it. I'm pretty sure that after my first successful stick I'll calm down a little. It's just the whole getting that first stick that's killing me. I'm not even gonna think about the fact I have to intubate a live person next semester. Thankfully it'll be in the or under controlled conditions. I'm still nervous though. I think a lot of it too is that there is just so much riding on me being able to do this stuff well, not just do it. I don't want to be a mediocre medic. I want to be the best. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. People keep telling me to let that go, but it just seems so counterintuitive. One medic today told me you aren't really a medic till you kill a pt. If that's true, then I can only hope I'm never really a medic. Just a great pre-hospital als provider. If that makes any sense at all.
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