Four sticks today

[SnikPlosskin]

I’ve been going to the same cancer center since 2013. I know I’m an “easy stick” because nurses seldom miss my veins. I figure I’ve had almost 3000 IVs over the last 22 years.

Usually it’s a new person that misses. I only give one or two chances to new people. If they miss they don’t touch me again. Of the 10 experienced nurses there they almost never miss with me. Quick and painless.

In fact I’m so familiar with the procedure I can tell when someone is going to miss the vein. Lately Im noticing a lot of turn over and new people. Usually young.

I have also noticed a serious decline in the ability to hit a vein.

Today, it took three nurses, four sticks before they got it. Now my left wrist is swollen with three sticks and my right arm is bruised on the underside. Both are sore as ****. This shit sets off my PTSD like nuts.

I was sort of pissed but kept it to myself. But I feel like I should say something. I’m not the only one. The lady next to me had three bandages. I could hear the same nurse apologizing to other patients.

This is a quality of care issue that directly impacts their score which impacts their reimbursements. People there are suffering so much, it’s unconscionable to inflict so much pain due to inexperience.

They always blame the patient too. “You have rolling veins” Bullshit. All veins roll. The difference is 100% technique. If you are digging around in my arm, you suck at your one job.

I understand even the best can have off days. But this is a bigger pattern that is getting bad. I’m thinking I should reach up the chain to their quality manager and give some feedback.

Those broken old people can’t take this shit. They are already dying. FIRST DO NO HARM YOU ****S.

Would you complain? I feel a responsibility to the other patients. I know who is who there so I can always get the top people if I request them but others there are not frequent fliers like me so they don’t know any better.

I’m tired of watching them suffer. I’m pretty familiar with hospital quality scoring and reimbursements from working with clients in that space.

It seems like misses should be tracked so if Mary can’t hit a vein to save her soul, she needs to get retrained or canned.

Anyone know if they track individual nurses?

[Bill]

I tried to give blood last year, and a young, obviously new phlebotomist girl stuck me but missed. Another one came over and wiggled it around and got a small amount out, but obviously it wasn't going well. They just pulled the needle out and said I was done. I'm like, I came here to do a good thing, give blood. Just stick the other arm. I guarantee I have plenty of blood. They told me to come back in 8 weeks. I didn't go back.

[Millenium Vette]

There are good nurses and there is also bad nurses. The good nurses are awesome and have helped me, but **** the bad nurses! The worst is when they try to play doctor and tell me what to do. They ain't no doctor and any nurse dumb enough to think they are always ****s up and gives bad advice.

However, not gonna lie, first thing that came to mind from your title is....

Led Zeppelin - Four Sticks (Official Audio) - YouTube

[TheHammer]

Yeah, I get stuck a few times a year, nothing like the OP though. I've noticed the same incompetence over the past couple years. New phlebotomists, missing my veins. Old ones hit it first time, every time.
Don't get me started on hospital emergency care.

[Shrike6]

Report it.

[SnikPlosskin]

Originally Posted by bill_daniels

I tried to give blood last year, and a young, obviously new phlebotomist girl stuck me but missed. Another one came over and wiggled it around and got a small amount out, but obviously it wasn't going well. They just pulled the needle out and said I was done. I'm like, I came here to do a good thing, give blood. Just stick the other arm. I guarantee I have plenty of blood. They told me to come back in 8 weeks. I didn't go back.

Wow. That’s really nuts because a blood draw stick is child’s play. I wouldn’t have returned either.

Originally Posted by TheHammer

Yeah, I get stuck a few times a year, nothing like the OP though. I've noticed the same incompetence over the past couple years. New phlebotomists, missing my veins. Old ones hit it first time, every time.
Don't get me started on hospital emergency care.

Aaaand, that’s why I post questions here. I think we are right. Quality is dropping.

Originally Posted by Shrike6

Report it.

I think I have to for the others their. I’m pretty tough (although it pisses me off) but there are some very frail, very sick people there. They don’t need any unnecessary pain.

Don’t get me wrong. This place has been a lifesaver for me and they are world class. Or used to be.

I’m going to ask if they track that sort of thing. They track everything so I bet they do. I want to know what happens when Nurse Stabby gets the high score on “Find the obvious veins”.

[Yadkin]

This is a generation that grew up with one hand on a mouse and the other holding a phone. Therefore have no real sense of touch.

[Rodnok1]

If they miss twice either somebody else does it or I leave. A blind person can hit mine. One girl I think put needle through my arm. She lived only because of the pain and I couldn't get other hand around her neck. I got kicked out eventually, bleeding all over the place. Stupid bitch, my arm burt for a week. I did file a report.
Don't hesitate once they m8ss twice to say stop and demand someone else do it otherwise you're encouraging their ineptitude.

[Frankie the Fink]

I had one nasal swab COVID test done while sitting in the car and Nurse Ratched pushed that swab nearly into my cerebellum to the point I was kicking the floor - she said she had to do that to prevent "false positives". None of the other nurses did that. And she wasn't a young kid either. I think there were maybe handcuffs and ball gags involved in her private home life.

[Tikiman]

Originally Posted by SnikPlosskin

Wow. That’s really nuts because a blood draw stick is child’s play. I wouldn’t have returned either.



Aaaand, that’s why I post questions here. I think we are right. Quality is dropping.



I think I have to for the others their. I’m pretty tough (although it pisses me off) but there are some very frail, very sick people there. They don’t need any unnecessary pain.

Don’t get me wrong. This place has been a lifesaver for me and they are world class. Or used to be.

I’m going to ask if they track that sort of thing. They track everything so I bet they do. I want to know what happens when Nurse Stabby gets the high score on “Find the obvious veins”.

Back in the day when I was still donating blood, they would wrap that rubber thingy around my upper arm and my veins would stand out like sewer pipes. At least half the nurses would make some kind of comment about how they weren't going to have any trouble hitting one. One day a younger nurse started working on me and I wasn't really paying any attention until she stuck me for the third time. An older unit saw what was happening and came over and shooed her away, but not before I saw the words "TRAINEE" on the younger nurse's badge. I vowed that day to not let another trainee practice on me.


What you wrote above and I bolded reminded me of a conversation I just had with an old golf partner the other day. He has a Masters in Biology and is retired from the corporate world. Finding time heavy on his hands, he decided to teach biology at a local high school. He lasted two months. He told me that his first class had 34 students in it and that 14 were special ed students and that 5 couldn't speak a word of English. I asked him how he was supposed to teach Biology to them and he replied, "I wasn't". So I asked him if he was just supposed to fail them then and he told me, "No, you can't fail them". He quit in the middle of the term because there was no way that he could do his job with the constraints being put on him by the school system. This reminded me of when I was tutoring high school children in mathematics. I was getting some side cash for helping children who were in danger of not graduating high school pass their math courses. I quit after I realized that these high school seniors were taking Geometry. I asked a member of the faculty why seniors would be taking Geometry and she just shrugged and said it was the best they could do.

This led my wife and I to have the discussion about how school systems these days aren't in the business of teaching children any longer. They are merely warehousing them and moving them through the system. We are creating multiple generations of people who are graduating high school with 7th or 8th grade educations. Which further led to the discussion about how these idiots will be the ones taking care of us when we are in older care facilities. That's a pretty scary thought. I told my wife that we need to do all that we can to make sure we can care for ourselves in our old age because there is no way I want any of today's cretins responsible for my care.


Bottom line - prepare to lower your expectations because I don't see the level of intelligent people entering the work force rising any time soon.

[MikeB]

With all the jabs my wife was getting while hospitalized over the past 13 months, it came down to a nurse specialist was called in ~50% of the time,
to use an ultrasound machine to jab the "rolling" vein. Before this cancer shit hit her, she never had a problem with blood letting.

2 years ago when I was in the hospital due to the Woo-Flu, the nurses had
to use an ultra-violet light to locate my veins, and it would still take 2 to 4 jabs to get it. Just imagine 13 days of this stuff. I can remember 12 years ago, while in for a hernia operation, it took over 30 minutes to get a tube in my arm for the intravenous feed. 2 nurses, then a Anesthesiologist's Dr's assistant finally got the vein. Both my arms, from the top of my hand, to the elbows, were black & blue.
I've always had difficult vein punctures, and I'm lucky if a vein is located on the first try maybe 10% of the time.

[Don Rickles]

Tell the vampires, for every miss, they get a kick in the box!

Keep fighting bro!

[Don Rickles]

So, I just asked the wifey, (nursing for 40 yrs). She said, yes there is a line to be filled in, when inserting an IV, How many attempts______________?

So it should be documented.

[Taurus]

Damn, that sucks. You weren't dehydrated by chance were you as that makes it really hard to find a vein.

[6spdC6]

Originally Posted by Taurus

Damn, that sucks. You weren't dehydrated by chance were you as that makes it really hard to find a vein.

I know that helps. I learned that many years ago.I always drink plenty of water before a scheduled blood draw. I have to get a lot of tests and I learned long ago that while a nurse can sometimes do it fast and easy a Plib normally can do it every time.

My one doctors office I always have to get there at 7.30 for a office visit and then get a none fasting blood draw. They have one nurse there that is very good and I always insist she do the draw. Do not care if I have to wait a few minuets for her, its worth it.

[SnikPlosskin]

Originally Posted by Touringmike

With all the jabs my wife was getting while hospitalized over the past 13 months, it came down to a nurse specialist was called in ~50% of the time,
to use an ultrasound machine to jab the "rolling" vein. Before this cancer shit hit her, she never had a problem with blood letting.

2 years ago when I was in the hospital due to the Woo-Flu, the nurses had
to use an ultra-violet light to locate my veins, and it would still take 2 to 4 jabs to get it. Just imagine 13 days of this stuff. I can remember 12 years ago, while in for a hernia operation, it took over 30 minutes to get a tube in my arm for the intravenous feed. 2 nurses, then a Anesthesiologist's Dr's assistant finally got the vein. Both my arms, from the top of my hand, to the elbows, were black & blue.
I've always had difficult vein punctures, and I'm lucky if a vein is located on the first try maybe 10% of the time.

I get stuck so much by different people and they almost never miss. I can now recognize proper technique and I tell them the general area where nurses have good results.

It is iterally only with new people. In 22 years of this, I’ve never had four sticks. My veins are huge.

I talked to an older nurse and she said all veins roll. The reason they miss is 100% lack of proper technique. She said they blame it on the patient by claiming the veins rolled, the patient is a hard stick, etc. It’s a lie.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by SnikPlosskin

I get stuck so much by different people and they almost never miss. I can now recognize proper technique and I tell them the general area where nurses have good results.

It is iterally only with new people. In 22 years of this, I’ve never had four sticks. My veins are huge.

I talked to an older nurse and she said all veins roll. The reason they miss is 100% lack of proper technique. She said they blame it on the patient by claiming the veins rolled, the patient is a hard stick, etc. It’s a lie.

I tried to donate blood like that once.....I was "asked to leave the building." Something about "inappropriate." Whatever......

[SnikPlosskin]

Originally Posted by bill_daniels

I tried to donate blood like that once.....I was "asked to leave the building." Something about "inappropriate." Whatever......

“You need to stop masturbating immediately!”

“Doc, what does that have to do with my blood draw?”

“I’m trying to examine you!”