Different Perspectives

Back when I started as an ER tech, I was trained by ER nurses (kind of like being raised by wolves, but even more awesome). One nurse in particular, a seasoned veteran of several decades spent in various inner-city trauma centers, took me under her wing and first introduced me to the so-called intern's vein - a vein so easy, "even an intern can find it."

Flash forward a few years to med school, where a bunch of eager young med students attentively soak up a powerpoint presentation on how to draw blood. As the physician runs through the preferred sites for peripheral access, he finally comes to the intern's vein - a vein that "only the intern can find" (presumably after unsuccessful attempts by the nurses).

Same vein, just a slightly different emphasis that made me chuckle. Flash forward even further, and I can promise that if Second Shift the Intern is told by an ER nurse with 20 years of experience finding impossibly tiny veins on hard core heroin addicts that she can't find access, the first thing I'm going to do is grab the ultrasound.