Pin Cushion

I finished up an IV variance class not to long ago. The class itself was mainly painless(pun intended), the instructor was competent and well informed, he had good instructional material to pass along to the students, hell even sticking each other really was not that bad. It seemed as if everyone had practiced on the side prior to taking the class, so's not to look foolish while you're taking the class to teach you things you shouldn't know yet. As if you're going to get into trouble for learning during your class. I found that I have rather tough skin, as a few needles were bench trying to breach the iron wall that is my skin. That and apparently I tend to keep my veins a little farther from the surface. Pretty much no one could land a line on me, which was fun, as everyone had to try. I was the hard stick, and I of course retained my title throughout the entire process. And I walked away with only one bruise to even whisper about.

So this weekends on call shift will be my first crack at real patient insertions. In the crazy version of an ALS/BLS service I work in, I cannot start an IV without a medic there to cup my balls and make sure I don't freak out and stab the patient repeatedly with a dirty, used needle, taking directly from the sharps box of course. I'm really not that bitter, I promise. But hey it is the tag line under EMSMUTT, working in the shadows of medics. Which I of course I tell myself is short term.

Mainly I took the class to get a head start on the medic class, you know the whole, I have to know everything prior to taking the class train of thought. Anywho, class still starts sometime in January. Right now it's still to distant to really mean anything, I still work for a living and can't give up the day job just yet. Not that I'm not tested from time to time.