The first thing I saw nurses perform was IV. The word
intravenous simply means "within a
vein", but is most commonly used to refer to IV therapy. Compared with other
routes of administration, the intravenous route is the fastest way to deliver fluids and medications throughout the body. Some medications, as well as
blood transfusions, can only be given intravenously. When I saw it though, IV was used first to draw blood from a patient. Blood was collected into several different tubes each doing different tests such as troponin level count. After blood was drawn, the needle stayed in the vein and nurses just taped the surrounding area and connected the needle to a tube that connected to a saline bag so that more blood could be drawn as needed. Before connecting the saline bag tube to the needle, the nurse had to make sure that there were no big air bubbles in the tube.
You don't need a certification to perform IV so I expect to perform it myself pretty soon. One time this charming female nurse was talking to me while performing IV. She was being careless and spilled a lot of blood from a patient who was an old man with pneumonia. This patient was too weak to complain.
