#cpe2

As a second year nursing student in my program I can take out IVs, but not insert them (this is something we learn this fall and I’m SO EXCITED). I’ve taken out quite a few IVs in the past year. It’s a skill I feel very comfortable with. In the winter semester this past year I was on a surgical floor with a lot of patient turnover, so I had the chance to take out a of of people’s IVs.

I continued my streak of (almost) always discharging my patients on paeds during my practicum. I took several IVs out of several small humans. 

The first IV I (tried) to take out on my first day was in the ER. I had an eight year old patient with abdominal pain and vomiting. She was diagnosed with gastritis, and discharged. She had an IV (I don’t know why, she wasn’t dehydrated, I don’t think she got any medications, she didn’t really need it, but WHATEVER), and I was going to take it out before she left. I went into her room with the nurse I was working with and explained to her and her parents what we were doing. I started taking the dressing off, and she started S C R E A M I N G. I didn’t know what to do, nothing like this had ever happened to me before. She was screaming and crying and she did not want me to touch her. The RN I was working with ended up taking it out. (Great start lol).

Most of the IVs I took out were out of babies. Kiddos under the age of two. Not really talking a lot, not necessarily understanding why I was doing what I was doing. Most of them were under the age of one. I love babies. They’re great. So cute. They all screamed or cried a little bit, but generally I think it went well.

The last IV I took out was on my last day of practicum, or very close to it. The last week sometime I think? It was another eight year old, but one I knew better. She had been my patient for a day and a half, and I had a really good relationship with (I think.) I explained what I was going to do, and she was a little bit nervous about it. She wanted to do it in 20 minutes, I said 5, and we settled on 7. I came back in actually exactly seven minutes. My instructor came with me, I can’t remember why, but it was good and chill. I talked her through everything I was doing, and she handled it well for being so nervous. I gave her a clean IV catheter and extension thingy with the needle taken out to take home, and she thought that was pretty cool. It was so much better than the first time!

Yesterday was my past day of my practicum on paediatrics. I had so much fun this semester and I’m sad it’s over. I loved working with the small humans! I’m going to make some more specific posts, but I wanted to make a general overview first.

The paediatric unit I was on is in an aldult hospital, and is the only paediatric unit that serves about 700,000 people in the surrounding area. The ER at that hospital is mixed paediatric and adults. The hospital has a 25 bed NICU, 5 bed PICU, 23-ish bed general paediatrics ward, 4 designated mental health beds, and a day care floor with a respiratory clinic, diabetes clinic, oncology clinic, and surgical day care.

Patients on the floor could be broken down into four categories:

mental health and disordered eating

failure to thrive infants

respiratory infections and asthma exasperations (usually both)

everything else.

The whole time I was there, about half of the patients were mental health. The “everything else” category is a mix of other infections, broken bones, surgeries, and random other things.

Hi anon,