Paramedic & Medic Students...Practicing IV/IM/SQ/ID

stephenrb81

stephenrb81

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We practice needle sticks on each other in class. A classmate attempted an IV and failed on me and it left this extremely nasty "lump"...No hematoma. The student never got a flashback, no blood when she aspirated the syringe so she never did flush with saline.

It's sore as hell and I was *****ing/whining about it to some co-workers and they were surprised we practice on each other. How many of you had to practice on each other

Edit: To clarify, I don't mind the practicing on each other, It allows the "Human Factor". The Sim-mans don't jump or complain when you stick lol. Plus you learn the 'nuances' lol
 
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stephenrb81 said:
We practice needle sticks on each other in class. A classmate attempted an IV and failed on me and it left this extremely nasty "lump"...No hematoma. The student never got a flashback, no blood when she aspirated the syringe so she never did flush with saline.

It's sore as hell and I was *****ing/whining about it to some co-workers and they were surprised we practice on each other. How many of you had to practice on each other
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thats the standard here, emt and medic students have practiced on each other for as long as I have been in EMS. People from a non-ems field will probably not understand why we do it, but there are reasons behind it.
 
knxemt1983 said:
thats the standard here, emt and medic students have practiced on each other for as long as I have been in EMS. People from a non-ems field will probably not understand why we do it, but there are reasons behind it.
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When I started the program, I was expecting to be stuck numerous times once we got that far. I was simply suprised when a few Medics made the remarks "We were NOT ALLOWED to practice on each other"
 
From I-class on up we practice on each other...

Actually, scratch that. We practice IM/SQ on each other in Basic
 
If not each other, who would you pratice on? Training maniquens only go so far as rubber, and you can only pay the homeless so much per stick. Leave it to the students
 
up here, it varies by school. my medic class was stricly forbidden from practicing on each other. training was done on the rubber arm and live sticks were done in clinical rotations.

other schools they poked each other. its all about insurance and liability.
 
KEVD18 said:
up here, it varies by school. my medic class was stricly forbidden from practicing on each other. training was done on the rubber arm and live sticks were done in clinical rotations.

other schools they poked each other. its all about insurance and liability.
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Part of it may be MD to MD too
 
Here, we practice on each other starting the 3rd day of EMT-IV class.

And let me tell you, I was terrified!

But it's great practice. We aren't allowed to stick without a paramedic instructor supervising our every move, and that includes during our clinicals (or so I was led to believe). How else will we get used to the basic ideas before going out to stick complete strangers?
 
Down here we start w/ oranges for SQ and then move on up to fellow students. We also practice IVs on each other.
 
We practiced the iv technique on dummy arms to get the proper procedure and then we stuck each other. For IM and sub Q shots we did them on each other also an injected saline. One of the class requirements was to that we had to have student liabilty insurance.
 
In both my I and P classes, the rule was 'In order to stick someone, you must be willing to be stuck.' :o

There were some that were stuck numerous times on numerous days.
 
We practice on each other as well, allows the student to remember what the patient is experiencing.

R/r 911
 
I went to EMT-IV and medic school at Tennessee tech, and in both classes we were not allowed to practice on each other. Our first "live sticks" were on patients on our clinicals. our instructors said it had something to do with the schools liability.
 
We practice on eachother. We don't run fluids but we do the rest of the song and dance. We're required to have 10 successful IV starts on eachother in class before they will allow us to go on any clinicals. I couldn't even imagine not being able to practice on real people.

Side note but before I started medic I was deathly afraid of needles (white as a ghost for a TB test). Even when I was trying to start an IV on the mannequin arm I would be shaking because I was scared of the needle, allowing other rookies to practice on me has really got me over my fear quickly.

Another side note but for those that do practice on other students do you have a limit on how many times you're allowed to be stuck in one day? We're limited to 3 attempts per arm per day and we're not allowed to use the AC.
 
marineman said:
We practice on eachother. We don't run fluids but we do the rest of the song and dance. We're required to have 10 successful IV starts on eachother in class before they will allow us to go on any clinicals. I couldn't even imagine not being able to practice on real people.

Side note but before I started medic I was deathly afraid of needles (white as a ghost for a TB test). Even when I was trying to start an IV on the mannequin arm I would be shaking because I was scared of the needle, allowing other rookies to practice on me has really got me over my fear quickly.

Another side note but for those that do practice on other students do you have a limit on how many times you're allowed to be stuck in one day? We're limited to 3 attempts per arm per day and we're not allowed to use the AC.
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Any day but the last stick day we are limited to 3 sticks each, anywhere in the upper extremities.

Last day it wasn't uncommon for some of us to get stuck 6
 
Dummy first, and once they're cleared on technique, on other students. We were sticking each other nearly every single day for a year.

Thankfully, my veins are great.
 
We had to do 10 sticks in the dummy and get cleared before we practiced on each other. Once we started we had to have at least 1 successful attempt for each area (hand, forearm, a/c) on the first day. We had a limitation of eight attempts per arm per class. During our hospital clinicals we were expected to get 15 successful sticks per shift. Needless to say were all walking around with some colorful arms for a while. But as stated before we had a get stuck to stick policy.

Shabo
 
I honestly think its the best way to learn... I figured out very early how to decrease/ increase pn as needed! Everyone that is going to stick someone with a needle needs to be stuck by at least one before they go do it to someone else. It also gives you the same feeling the pt probably feels when a newbie is coming at them with a 16 gauge needle!
 
Many experienced providers will tell you of the "pop" you feel when you get the IV in a vein...you can't get that feel by sticking mannequin arms. I don't understand the liability in not having students perform on each other, but I'm sure it's some crap devised by those pesky lawyers.
 
Practice sticking...

We had to get checked off using the NR standards on a Sim-man 2 or 3 times. This checked your technique and then you were let loose on fellow students. We had to get 2 live sticks that were good to be let loose on your IV's in the clinicals.
 
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