Shots

On Wednesday I had my first experience giving shots. And, the end result is that I have so much less stress than I did before!

I have been really worried for months that I would not be able to give shots without getting dizzy or faint. All growing up I was fine with needles and blood, but in the past year, the 3 times I have had to draw my own blood for labs, or had to have my blood drawn for a test, I have gotten really light headed and shaky. I wasn't sure if it was because of the blood, the needle, or because I was a wimp and didn't like the pain. But I was worried.
So when I went to class and was able to give three shots with quite long needles to a real live person, without passing out, I was quite excited.

We learned about the parenteral routes (injecting medicine into a tissue) of med administration:

• ID shots or intradermal (into the dermis) are what they give for shots like the TB test, where they need to be able to assess the reaction of your skin to whatever substance they injected into you. 
• IM or intramuscular (into the muscle) are the shots you get for most other things: immunizations, flu shots, strep shots, etc. 
• Next week we'll learn about Sub-Q or subcutaneous (just below the dermis) injections. You use these to administer things like insulin to a diabetic patient. And then next semester we'll learn about IV or intravenous (into the vein) shots.

We gave the ID shot in the forearm. The way to figure out where to give it is to go three fingers down from the elbow joint (on the front or your arm). You insert the medication just below the surface and it creates a little bleb, or white bump on your arm. We did this one first and it was probably the most painful because it basically rips your skin apart in the one little area. We gave the IM injections on the deltoid muscle and the ventrolgluteal muscle.

Poor Brittany gave me all my shots and we realized quickly that I bleed a ton! When I stabbed her she hardly bled at all, but when she poked me I was gushing. The worst/funniest time was when she was getting ready to poke my thigh. I was expecting her to practice once with the needle cap on (like we had both done on the deltoid and I had done on her ventrogluteal) but she didn't need to. So, when I felt the needle I was so startled that I jerked and she had to pull the needle out. It hardly hurt at all, but there was blood everywhere! So, she cleaned it up, got a new needle, and had to do it again. Sorry Brittany!

But it was awesome! Definitely a good experience overall. Thinking back on it I can't believe I was able to push those 1 1/2 inch needles all the way up to their hub into Brittany's muscle, but now I know that I definitely can do it. And I am starting to fee like a real nurse! :)