Practice makes perfect

Part of my apprenticeship involves practicing hands-on and so far I've been doing things I know how to do well. Last week one of the midwives, D, offered that I could draw blood for one of the tests. (If the mom wanted to do the test and was fine with me doing the draw.) I learned how to draw blood (venipuncture) about a year ago during my Heart & Hands course. A very skilled midwife taught us and in small groups we practiced on each other. Of course everyone was nervous, but we all did fairly well. Needless to day I haven't done any since then and was a bit nervous at the thought of practicing on a pregnant momma.

I told the D how I felt and she was still confident in me. To my relief the mom opted to not take the test, so I didn't draw any blood. I did get to take her blood pressure though... much easier, hehe. I asked D if I could borrow some supplies and try to practice drawing blood at home on anyone who was willing =) She thought it was a great idea and gave me everything I needed. Since I live with three boys, ahem, I mean men... I thought it would be easy to get a volunteer. One roommate declined, my hubby was squeamish, but on the fence about it... and the other roommate said sure, but not right now.

The next day I came home from a yoga class and our good friend S was over. Anxious to have at least 2 victims I asked him straight out "Are you afraid of needles?" and without hesitation he said adamantly "No". haha. If you have to practice on someone, its always better to have someone who is less nervous than you =) So I got all my stuff set up and reviewed the steps one last time in my course binder. I felt ready and confident.

I won't go into minute details. But I missed the vein the first time =( I should have been holding the skin a bit more taught and the vein kinda rolled to the side. I've seen nurses deal with this by pushing to the side to try and find the vein, but since I'm less experienced I wanted to try from scratch. I confirmed w/ S and he was fine with me trying again. Success! I hit the vein, collected a decent amount of blood and he was good to go. whew! I did it!

Even though I missed the first time, I feel more confident now. And I'm hoping to practice it at least one more time before drawing a mommas blood. The roommate who said "sure, but not now" is not so sure anymore after watching me take S's blood, haha. But we'll see if i can convince him =) Practice will make perfect!