HI.  Just so everyone knows I am new to blogging, so I hope you will all bear with me.  This is my first entry and I would like to talk to you and find out about you and some of your IV experiences, and maybe we can learn from each other.  My new book, The Art of the IV Start, is designed to help you understand the little details needed to be successful at starting IVs.  I am very passionate about this subject because as you may well know by now….you can be, or think you are, the best nurse in the world but if your IV skills are lacking, no matter how much you try to convince yourself, you are still not the best nurse you can be.  We can surely talk about other things in the nursing profession (and I welcome that), but I also want to make sure you develop the skills needed to be successful.

From what I’ve seen and read, the current books out there about intravenous therapy only review IV insertion and the coarse technique of how to find and stick the vein, then they talk about fluids and the science of fluid therapy.  At firse glance the technique doesn’t look that hard and can give you a false sense of security.  Whenever we get a taste of success we always think we are pretty good.  That is just human nature.  The true test of a successful nurse however is when he/she can get the tricky, complicated, and problematic IV.  The true test of a good IV nurse is to get the IV when you look at your patient’s arm and know there is no way in h__l of getting it because you can’t see anything in the first place……and then, because of your humble confidence, you get what no one else thought was possible.  Now that is a high five and a fist bump all rolled into one.

My book is very specific.  It not only covers the coarse procedure but also gives you the secrets for success.  These are the little things no one ever tells you or thinks about because we all take them for granted.  Anyone can go to nursing school, pass the boards, and become a nurse, but to be a good nurse, the caring is in the details.  That is what IV initiation is all about.  The success is in the details.  Its all about the small stuff.  Someday you may be putting an IV in me, and if your skills are lacking, I would be the patinet every nurse loves to hate.  So lets talk.