How to Start an IV for Nursing Students

Since I have been a registered nurse for over 5 years now I have mastered the skill of starting an IV. I am usually the person everyone comes to if they need an IV started. However, it has not always been that way!

After I first graduated from nursing school I was terrible at starting IVs. I was so bad that many times I would not attempt to try and would ask another nurse to try for me.  I didn't want to put the patient through all that pain and look incompetent. This strategy worked for awhile until I took a job in a department where I had to start IVs routinely on outpatients. I was usually all by myself and had no one to go to if I couldn't get the IV. Needless to say I learned how to start IVs!

I think the reason I had such trouble starting IVs was because I had no confidence at all! In nursing school we were barely taught how to start one. I remember having one day in clinicals were we started an IV on a mannquieen and that was all I got to do.

It took me about 3 years to get good at them and that was because I didn't try to get good at them but my new job forced me to do so.

If you are a nursing student or like how I was as a nurse you may want to check out this great video on how to start ivs.

Here are some of my quick tips:

1. Put the tourniquet on fairly tight. This allows the blood to pull in the extremity which engorges the vein.
2. Have the patient pump their fist. Again that causes the veins to pop out.
3. If you are using the straight IV needles (not the butterfly IVs) here is a tip: Once you get blood return slightly insert the needle a little more into the vein and then advance or glide the cannula in. This was a major issue for me. I was hitting the vein but the cannula would not advance. So I began inserting the needle a little more after I hit the vien and the cannula simply glided in.
4. Practice! Practice! Yes I do miss veins sometimes. Remember even the most experience people miss IVs.

Sarah :-)