Starting clinicals.

[hogwiley]

Why does pt. care or EMS experience have anything to do with learning to start an IV in a class? It's a technical skill like any other that has to be learned and practiced at some point. Whether someone is an EMT student, a medic student, or a nursing student, someone has to be their first stick. You can have your opinion on whether or not the OP should be ordering supplies online and starting them for practice on his wife, but the class seems perfectly appropriate. There are plenty of places in the country where EMT-Bs can start IV lines, and apparently he lives in one of them.

Yes someone has to do their first stick sometime, but a Nursing and Medic student has considerably more training and knowledge of human anatomy and a little bit of proven competence when they attempt that first stick than your typical EMT student when he/she begins clinicals.

As for non medical military personnel starting IVs, its my understanding that has been discontinued and that CLS courses no longer include it, so apparently it didnt work out too well. Not to mention theres a huge difference between starting an IV on a healthy athletic 20 year old army PFC and a dehydrated 85 year old diabetic and lifelong smoker.

Where I work as a patient care tech we can do blood draws, 12 leads, check placement on NG tubes and even DC them, start foleys, do tube feedings, stage 2 dressing changes, BGL checks etc, but mess with an IV line and you are fired. We cant start them, discontinue them, flush them or anything to do with them. Even LPNs arent allowed to. It has to be an RN, so I guess I've had it ingrained in me that while learning to start one isnt a big deal(Ive seen a thousand of them started), its still something left to people who have a higher level of training and licensure for a variety of reasons.

 

[chaz90]

Yes someone has to do their first stick sometime, but a Nursing and Medic student has considerably more training and knowledge of human anatomy and a little bit of proven competence when they attempt that first stick than your typical EMT student when he/she begins clinicals.

As for non medical military personnel starting IVs, its my understanding that has been discontinued and that CLS courses no longer include it, so apparently it didnt work out too well. Not to mention theres a huge difference between starting an IV on a healthy athletic 20 year old army PFC and a dehydrated 85 year old diabetic and lifelong smoker.

Where I work as a patient care tech we can do blood draws, 12 leads, check placement on NG tubes and even DC them, start foleys, do tube feedings, stage 2 dressing changes, BGL checks etc, but mess with an IV line and you are fired. We cant start them, discontinue them, flush them or anything to do with them. Even LPNs arent allowed to. It has to be an RN, so I guess I've had it ingrained in me that while learning to start one isnt a big deal(Ive seen a thousand of them started), its still something left to people who have a higher level of training and licensure for a variety of reasons.

I think you're getting too caught up on what you're used to. A foundation in anatomy and physiology is great and irreplaceable in many circumstances, but it is not necessary to start IVs. The one placing the IV is not necessarily using it for anything. I could imagine a job in a hospital, even if it would be unbelievably boring, that would only entail starting IVs and drawing labs. Do you know what the minimum education would be for that? Probably a stand-alone IV or phlebotomy certificate with zero background in physiology.

I also don't think other students automatically have a stronger foundation or competence before their first live stick. Even in nursing schools, I know I've seen students who have done a couple mannequin practices and then show up in the ED for their live sticks.