Blood. Either we need to draw blood, or we need access to blood. It's something that we can get paged about from time to time.
We don't get paged immediately....usually. For the most part, multiple nurses have tried sticking the patient, and if it's available the actual IV team has been called without success as well. So they call us.
Which, I know, incredibly ironic. I guarantee you any nurse would be better at starting an IV than myself. And doubly guarantee you that any phlebotomist would be better at drawing some blood than myself.
The only thing that I have that they don't....I can't give up. There's no one to pass it off to, and there's no question that the patient needs the access. So I walk into a patient's room. They look at me. They are tired, frustrated, worn out, hurting, SCARED. And I tell them that if it takes 20 more sticks, I won't give up on them.
I usually grab an ultrasound machine and find a vein that's a bit deeper to go after. Which may be cheating, but honestly, if the nurses couldn't get one of the remaining few superficials....no way I'd be able to either.
Much Love.
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