Bubbles?

I tend to get very stressed about the bubbles in my syringe when I'm giving an injection. It's not AS bad as if there are bubbles in the IV (for obvious reasons) but I still tend to lose my head over it. Luckily I'm quite good at getting them out of the Syringe...but there are still some fun things that happen "behind the scenes" when preparing a needle. They can be a little bit comical after the fact, but not so much when you're in a drug room drawing up medication with an instructor breathing down your neck.

My favorite story will always be of my very first IM injection which was a combination of Gravol and Demerol. Fine and dandy. I could handle filling out the narcotic sheet by now, as well as drawing up the medication...or so I thought. Gravol and Demerol are compatible medications, which means they can be mixed together in the syringe and given as one needle. What they don't tend to tell you is that when you're drawing up the second med, you have to get it right on with no bubbles because you can't prime or flick bubbles out...it'll mess up the amount of meds in the needle. Soooo I had to draw the gravol very slowly so as not to get any bubbles and whatnot. And I had to do this with both Willena, Judy, and another student IN THE ROOM. Yikes. Then of course I got there and all I had to put on my hands were large gloves, so I went and got some mediums but I felt bad for making the lady wait.

So when I went to do this IM the first thing I did was to go for a search for medium gloves. All was going well until I realized I didn't have enough in the syringe to do my measurement (I needed a ml.) so I had to stick the darned thing back in the vile. Argh. And Cyndee was all "I won't watch" which was cute but I actually don't mind them watching and said as much. Anyway we got in there and the girl couldn't lay down so I had to do it while she was sitting, and let me tell you it's some hard to landmark when someone is sitting instead of standing. I wanted to make sure I got a good spot. Cyndee was like "well you can use vastis lateralis if you want" but I don't like that spot so I used the one I had. It went well in the end.

Now I just have to get over the bubbles in the IV phobia