So my first day working in the lab was Saturday.  All I really got to do Saturday was watch the phlebotomist do her job.  I got to do some of the paperwork and I got to turn on the centrifuge machine.  I was there four hours on Saturday.


Today I worked the full 8 hour shift.  Since I'm not allowed to stick anyone until I've followed the phlebotomist around for at least 8 hours, my morning was pretty boring.  And they decided that I shouldn't do any of the paperwork since technically I wasn't an employee and they didn't want to violate any HIPAA laws.  So I just stood there all morning not doing anything. At 11:30 my eight hours was up and I got to stick the next person that came in.  I got blood on the first try!  --that's always a good thing!  :)  However; right after that the next patient wasn't as cooperative.  I missed her vein on the first stick and she freaked out, which kind of freaked me out.  I didn't freak out in front of her though.  I didn't freak out until 30 minutes later when it was lunchtime. 


I didn't want to stick ANYONE else.  I felt incompetent.  I felt like I was insane for thinking I could do something like this.  I was terrified that I was going to hurt someone.  I was thinking of all the wonderful non-jobs I could work for the rest of my life--anything besides sticking people because I can't seem to get someone to bleed correctly.  (I was being way too hard on myself) So I went outside and called my friend--the one who paid for me to go to school in the first place.  He used to be an EMT and was trying to convince me that this is something that I will just realize I've picked up, and I would eventually look back and laugh at how silly it was that once upon a time I was scared.  He told me a couple of beginner-EMT stories and we laughed.  Then he told me to get my butt back inside and DO THE JOB I PAID FOR YOU TO LEARN TO DO.  :)   (thanks David)


OK, that helped a little.  The next call I made was to one of the other students in my class.  She was just as nervous as I was and last week she started her clinicals.  She told me she realized after about 15 sticks that she wasn't shaking anymore.  LOL  So she really calmed my nerves by telling me that she went through the same thing and she's actually feeling pretty good about herself now.  She talked to me until my lunch was over and told me to "blow out the negative air and breathe in the positive air" and get in there and stick people.  Then she reminded me that it's not ME who should be scared, it's the poor people in the chair!  LMAO


After I got back from lunch, I had successful sticks the rest of the day!  I stuck seven people total today, and I got blood out of 6 of them!  And that's pretty good.  there were four people whose veins I couldn't feel and I didn't feel comfortable sticking them, and there was one 4 year old that I didn't feel comfortable sticking.  Other than that, I stuck everyone else who came in after lunch.  By the end of the day, i was feeling much better about my abilities to make people bleed, and I decided that I would in fact go back on Saturday.  :)