I’m a nurse on a surgical unit with very little medical overflow. Most of my patients are surgical patients (elective or emergent) but they always have access when I get them. Maybe once every week or two weeks an IV infiltrates so I have to insert one. I have been working here for about 4 months. Prior to that I worked at a hospital for 4 years in a general surgical unit, but that hospital had a dedicated IV team and we were not allowed to insert our own. I eventually want to maybe try working in an infusion clinic, but my IV skills are not the best and I don’t think it’s easy to practice on my unit because of how infrequent we place them. I probably have about a 50% success rate. I practiced at home on some willing family members and I am much better and get a higher success rate (maybe at work I am nervous?). Everyone I spoke to says unfortunately I won’t get really good on my unit and that usually the ED and Pre-Op helps you prepare more. Has anyone ever gotten good on med/surg and what are your tips? I’m only several months in but I am really down on myself. I get a blood flash 95% of the time, it’s mostly the advancing that is where I go wrong if I blow it. I know the steps in my head of lowering the angle once I get flash, but I just feel like muscle memory and practice is so important so if I’m only doing them once a week or once every two weeks, I get rusty and mess up.   submitted by   /u/AgitatedTraining6146 [link]   [comments]