When learning how to do an Iv how long did it take for you to successfully do one?

First - my disclaimer...I'm not a nurse or a healthcare professional, but I have a healthy respect and admiration for those that choose to help those in need of care. When I was much younger and serving in the Army, there was a certification called, Combat Lifesaver, that was given to select unit personnel so that they could provide critical lifesaving steps before actual medical personnel arrived. As you can imagine, there could be many situations where a person could be seriously injured and would need stabilization before medical personnel could actually treat the person. So the unit Combat Lifesaver would have to carry a couple of IV bags along with various other tools and a short list of medicines everywhere that they went.

Now, with all that as a backdrop, the actually process of learning how to start an IV took a couple of days. As I remember, there were a few hours of classroom overview that explained the process (of course there was much more training before and after about when to administer and how to diagnose) and then there was an afternoon of practice on oranges (the fruit...really!). The next day began with actually starting an IV on each other. Some paid close attention and were able to get it first try, others needed multiple tries and still others didn't finish because they got queasy at the site of blood.

I think that the mechanical act of starting an IV is not too difficult if conditions are right...the real difficulty comes if the patient is dehydrated, has extremely low blood pressure or some other condition. Once you've learned the basic technique, its all about practice - stick at every opportunity!