Medical Short Stories

28) Nursing Student Imagine

I thought of this one a while ago and decided to put it into words. I'm sorry if it's not accurate! It was one of my random ideas :)
Enjoy!

Aspen POV
I loved nursing school. No matter how hard it was or how grueling the work was, I found myself loving it at the end of the day. The idea of being able to help people made me so proud of where I had come from.

I didn't have a good childhood growing up, which only made me want to help kids who are like me. So I decided to become a nurse, specifically going into pediatrics.

However, before I could become a nurse, I had to go through nursing school, which meant doing real life practices.

Today our professor told us that we had senior nursing students coming into class to help us do our IV practice. I wasn't needle shy, but I was a little worried about having other students practice on me.

"Aspen want to be partners?" Ashley asked beside me, making me nod and smile.

She was one of the first people I had met in class and was one of the nicest people I've ever met. I felt like I could trust her not to hurt me.

Our professor then told us that the senior nurses were waiting in the hallway and were going to be randomly assigned to each pair of partners. He told us to get set up and wait until we met with a senior.

"I'm so excited for this lab! I've been waiting to do IV practice ever since I started school" Ashley exclaimed.

"Me too, this is going to be so much fun!"

We went to work setting everything up and taking the materials out of all of the plastic it was wrapped in.

"Do you want to be the test dummy first or do you want me to?" I asked jokingly.

"Umm can you? I really want to try this"

"Sure, I don't mind" I responded, not really having an opinion on it.

Just as I had started to roll up my sleeve, a man walked up to Ashley and I.

"Are you guys Ashley and Aspen?" He asked, reading the names off of a little sticky note.

"That's us! You are our senior nurse?" Ashley responded, looking him up and down.

I wasn't going to lie, he was very attractive, but I knew I had to stick to doing my work correctly.

"Yes my name is Elliot. I'll be helping you guys today" he said in a deep voice.

"Nice to meet you Elliot. I think we are ready to begin. Ashley is going to try on me first" I told him as he pulled up a chair next to us.

He nodded while looking over at our setup, making sure it was all done correctly.

"Okay good, Ashley you can go ahead and start by putting the band around her upper arm, above the vein" he said, using his arm as demonstration.

I was glad we actually got someone who would teach us instead of letting us screw up. It was also very odd we got paired with the only male nurse in here, but I wasn't going to question it.

She tied the blue rubber band over my arm and waited for his instruction.

"Good, now you are going to pick out the correct needle gauge and prep her arm."

He watched carefully as she grabbed a blue needle and an alcohol pad. She wiped the indent of my elbow with the alcohol pad and hooked up the correct IV pole.

"Very good Ashley, now you are going to slowly insert the needle into her arm and connect the catheter to the IV pole. Aspen all you need to do is stay still and not freak out" he said, sending me a smirk at the end.

"I'll try my best" I joked, knowing I was fine with needles.

Both he and I watched as she took the needle, bent it at the right angle, and slowly inserted it into the vein. I could feel a pinch but not anything too bad.

"Perfect, now hold the needle still and connect the catheter with your other hand. And take the band off" he instructed.

She pulled the blue band off and was going to connect the catheter when something happened. All of a sudden I felt a ton of pain in my arm and I looked to see there was blood just gushing out of my vein.

"Uh guys that really hurts" I whined, closing my eyes.

"Shit Ashley you just blew her vein. Move over I have to fix this" he somewhat shouted. She moved out of the way quickly and let him get in front of me.

I wasn't necessarily scared of blood but I knew from lessons that a blown vein was not good and needed to be taken care of before the patient bled out.

Scared and panicked, I began to silently cry and whimper.

"Shh it's okay Aspen, don't cry, it will be okay, I know how to fix this" he reassured even though I could tell he was also in a state of alarm.

He made quick work of taking the bloody needle out and covering my wound with gauze, which was quickly soaked with blood.

He put more gauze and pressure over it which made me whimper because of the pain.

"I know, I know, I'm working as fast as I can, I know it hurts I'm sorry" he comforted. If I wasn't so panicked, I would praise his bedside manner, but this wasn't the time.

He wrapped medical tape around my arm and secured all of the gauze that was stacked on my vein.

"That should stop the bleeding for right now. We need to get you to the ER to decide if the vein needs to be stitched or not and if you need more blood" he said, taking off his gloves and rubbing his face, looking stressed.

I nodded, the tears still soaking my face.

He looked up at me and pulled me into a gentle hug, which helped settle my frazzled nerves. It probably wasn't professional, but it was something I needed in the moment.

"Asp I'm so sorry I didn't mean to!" Ashley cried out, making me mouth 'it's okay' to her.

Elliot then pulled me up and steadied me when I started swaying.

"You are definitely going to need blood, you've lost too much" he said as he led me out of the classroom, Ashley and the professor hot on our tails calling the hospital for my arrival.

"Thank you Elliot"

"Of course beautiful"

Awwwwwwww sooo cute guys!!
Also, double update for today!!!!! Whoooo!!
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Thanks, K❤️