I was in the ER last night (I’m OK—no worries). The two nurses who most often attended me were very personable and seemed to know what they were doing.
Except they sucked at putting in IVs.
Now, I know my veins are small. Through my cancer journey, I had ample opportunities for nurses and techs to try and fail to put in an IV.
But I was well-hydrated and I haven’t had a needle stick in years (so there aren’t any spots blown out).
First nurse tried, dug around a bit (OUCH), failed.
Second nurse used ultrasound, which was kind of cool, but it still hurt more than it should have and continued to bounce between very uncomfortable and hurts the entire time it was in.
I would think that, maybe aside from EMTs (though I don’t know for sure) that the ER most often needs IVs placed in a hurry. Which means all the people working there should be better than average at this skill.
Are my expectations unreasonable? (Perhaps my ignorance leads me to draw poor conclusions.)
Teachers should be able to explain things in a variety of ways and troubleshoot learning pitfalls.
Anyone who works with the public should be personable.
Anyone with a phone job should have good diction. (I’m not only talking about thick accents.)
And ER nurses should be able to install IVs well.