My First Injection

I gave my first injection on my second day of clinical in September. Nothing big, just a subcutaneous heparin in a patient's arm. He was an elderly man and we technically weren't supposed to be doing injections yet because we hadn't had our lab on it, but I had one patient and he had no medications other than this 0900 heparin. I quickly read up on what I was supposed to do and as I walked into the room three of my classmates asked if they could come in a watch. I was shaking because I was so nervous, but I needed to maintain my cool exterior so I said, "sure, come on in". I feigned a confidence I did not have and approached my poor unsuspecting patient (who obviously did not know it was my first injection). I cleaned off a little section of his arm with an alcohol swab and took a deep breath to try to calm my shaking hand. My instructor gave me the permissive nod and I picked up my little needle and pinched the little section of fat together. Let's be honest, I had no idea what I was doing. The way I darted that needle into him you would have thought I was trying to inject a brick wall. I shot that little thing in. Evidently I didn't need quite that much force. The needle was tiny and the fat cells are quite receptive. The patient was none the wiser and said he didn't feel a thing when I confessed that it was my first injection.

Needless to say I am much better at it now.