The nurses are all so nice, pleasant, cheerful and efficient. I saw one young woman dressed all in black. The nurses wear blue surgery scrubs. When everything was assembled and the regular nurse was ready she began instructions to the lady in black. It finally dawned on me that this was a student at the local community college nursing school.
She prepared the many tubes, needle, tape and put on the plastic gloves. They looked for a vein. I kept very quiet, not wishing to tell them that the veins are small, they roll and just generally are very contrary.
They found a likely looking spot after looking on the underside of the arm. Just above my left wrist she inserted the needle. They needed to draw some blood for testing and then attached the tubing. It was almost painless. After she was all finished, I told her she did a really good job and that we didn't want to tell her beforehand that sometimes they have to try four times (the record was five) and I would go out into the world looking like a victim of something with coban all over my arms.
She seem pleased that I complimented her. After she was gone, I found out this was the last thing she had to check off her list. As an LPN, she had to do certain procedures before entering the RN program. The nurse told me that the student had been a little nervous. I would think so - trying the first blood draw on an old woman that you had never seen before!
Actually I was surprised by the fact that they didn't ask me if I minded if the student did the injection.
Usually they do but I think I was the last one to come in on her shift without a port!
I wonder who decided that the students should wear black.
I suppose Black differentiates them from others. Our daughter used us for pin cushions when she learned to start IV's, we looked like junkies:(
ReplyDeleteThey used to practice on oranges but I don't think it's quite the same.
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