For someone who has 4 years of med/surg experience, how do I get a job in infusion or IV therapy nursing? Do they only hire people with this type of experience or will they train someone like my background?

You do not need to have experience. I started coming out of the Emergency Department. Typically, Infusion areas are looking for all the help they can get.

You do have to take the ONS biotherapy certification course to administer chemotherapy, usually within one year of hire. The Oncology unit will cover the cost. Some hospitals also want you to have your OCN certification.

Medical infusion areas do not require certification.

It would be best to be competent with accessing ports, PICCs, and inserting IVs. Especially in Chemotherapy locations, IV skills are necessary. Once chemotherapy starts, patients become dehydrated, and their veins often become scarred, making accessing a vein problematic over time.

I have been a Chemotherapy infusion nurse for 20 years. It is not an easy job. It is a lot of patients with many different dynamics all at the same time. Infusion reactions with chemotherapy can be complicated to manage when 4 or 5 people are going simultaneously. With the rising of cancer, you can expect to have at least 5-12 patients in a day unless you are lucky to find a tiny institution.

I think it depends on the company that hires you. I have a home infusion job (which I LOVE by the way lol!), and I was trained. I already had IV experience from an ambulatory endo job but still needed training for ports, PICCs, midlines, Broviacs, blood draws, infusions, dressing changes, etc. As you know, peripheral IV insertions is on the job training. The more you do, the better you get. I guess just like everything else, really! Good Luck to you!

If you live in WA, I am hiring for my infusion clinic. Willing to train ...

I found a niche called Specialty Infusion Nursing. Sometimes it’s done in the clinic and other times at a hospital but I’ve also worked solely in patients homes when the infusion department was under a home health umbrella. The specialty meds I give are for autoimmune disorders such as Remicade, IVIG, Tysabri, Ocrevus and Entyvio. I absolutely love my job and it’s been a lot easier than other nursing jobs I’ve had. I first got into it when I was a home health nurse; i was recruited into the infusion department when someone in leadership saw that i was good with the IV patients (antibiotics, TPN) in home health so they thought i would be good in infusion when that dept needed help after losing a few nurses due to charting changes. I do find that this area can have limited openings. Two places I suggest looking at are Infinity Nursing and SPNN and see if they have openings. Actually, I think they’re under the same umbrella company now….Option Care. Fyi-90% patients are PIV starts so you have to be good at that. Also check on big companies that have home health departments and see if they have home specialty infusion patients. Even if there’s no openings, give them your résumé and tell him you’re interested.

Where I worked, they trained nurses who were new to infusion.

As a nurse manager in charge of hiring. You need good iv skills but everything else you can learn. Always loved someone who came with enthusiasm and willing to learn

Depends on your location, I’m starting my third infusion center job and all have required previous chemotherapy experience. I’m in California so maybe that leads to some of the higher requirements since we have a ton of nurses🤷🏻‍♀️

I myself started working in the ER and moved to IV infusion at home. I’m 2001 I started my own Home Health company.
When I look to hire someone, I don’t worry if they have never used certain pumps, if they can access a port, etc…those things are easily taught with 1 on 1 training. I want to know that you treat the family and pt with respect, that they have nothing but good things to say about you. The transition is easy for some and hard for others. There is no 9 to 5 schedule. You may go out for one. Patient come back home and be called out again. The next day you may have nine patients lined up and it turns into a 12 hour day. No 2 days are the same, I am speaking from a 1099 position not a full time W-2.
Hope this helps