When you give blood, don't tell your nurse that you're a nursing student.

On a whim, I decided to go with a friend to a Hema-Québec clinic at school. I haven't donated blood in awhile, because they always ask at the Canadian Blood Society if you've donated in Quebec and it makes me paranoid somehow that they won't let me donate if I have. Plus, I have my super favourite CBS clinic at Hillcrest. Clean, bright, not too crowded and the best cookie selections. Having been multiple times to clinics at Westmount, U of T, TD Centre, College Street and Sheppard, I consider myself something of a connoisseur.

They do things a bit differently here. Instead of checking your blood for hemoglobin levels right after they ask about your address and phone number (so that they can tell you immediately whether you're eligible or not), they make you wait for ages until you're in the booth with a nurse. For someone who tends to have hemoglobin levels *just* below the required level from time to time, this is worth nitpicking.

I was watching my nurse as she was about to insert the needle into my vein. She said, "You're going to watch?" I said, "Yes, I'm a nursing student, so I want to learn." This made her, a nurse with 10 years of experience, nervous enough that she went through the vein to the other side. Perhaps at this point, I should have looked away, but I couldn't. I watched as she pulled the needle out ever so slowly back into the vein. Even then, it took awhile for the blood to flow properly and they'd only gotten 250mL (out of 450mL) by the time the vein stopped being good. This has happened only once before and that time, the only thing left to do was getting blood cultures, so they used a smaller needle on my other arm.

My point is, this is a nurse with 10 years of experience who gets nervous just because I'm watching her. What's going to happen to me when I have to do this with my patients while my teacher watches? Anyone who's seen me play video games knows that I get very squealy when monsters/zombies/enemy soldiers/a particularly difficult section in Rock Band appear. But I like to think that when it comes to something really serious, I'm steady under pressure.

God, I hope so.