Blood draw

This week I performed my first patient stick. A patient had orders for labs and cultures so he needed to have blood drawn and I volunteered. I am happy to say that I found the vein on my first try (lucky for the patient) and he informed me afterward that I did okay. The reason I had originally volunteered was because when we practiced blood draws, we used the big vein in the crook of your elbow and so I figured it'd be a good place to start. Unfortunately, my preceptor said we had to draw below the IV (I wasn't aware that he had an IV) and so we had to use the hand.

I definitely didn't think I would go from working in an office 8-5 answering phones and tracking down buses to take our students to the airport to working in a hospital taking lab draws in just 4 weeks. Crazy. I don't think I really knew the meaning of an "accelerated program" until this week.