How to Draw Blood Specimen
HOW TO DRAW BLOOD SPECIMEN
How to draw a blood specimen from a patient has a few steps that have to be followed or the specimen will be contaminated. The steps to draw blood are as follows; first, you need to assembly all your equipment – lab request, vaccutainer (the needle & tube holder), needle, tourniquet, & tubes; then, connect the vaccutainer and needle together. Using universal precautions and put gloves on and DO NOT rip off one of the fingers so you can feel better this will only put the phlebotomist at risk. The second step is to explain the procedure to your patient, this will help keep them calmer; then place the tourniquet around the arm, about quarter inch above the bend of elbow.
This next step is where a lot of phlebotomist can make their first mistake. After the tourniquet is in place, you must palpate for the phlebotomy, site to feel for a vein. Most phlebotomist will say “Oh I can't see any veins" that would be because we are supposed to palpate for the vein not go by sight. The vein may look good but in reality it could be a thready (small), rolling, or a vein that has been used to often and would collapse. Most likely this could cause the phlebotomist to miss the vein. Then cleanse the area with an alcohol pad and insert the needle at a 15° angle with the bevel up (bevel is the where the needle becomes flat with small hole or bore showing to the a point) until a flash of blood and draw the specimen according to the tests ordered. To finish up I would then take the tourniquet off, remove the last vial and apply a gentle pressure while removing the needle from your patients arm, then bandage. Remember to educate your patient about bruising.
When working with infants and toddlers, this is very difficult as the infants cannot communicate with us and the toddlers are limited in their communication. So it will take extra time and a special skill to do a venous blood draw. In work with children it is called Pediatric Phlebotomy and in most cases
How to draw a blood specimen from a patient has a few steps that have to be followed or the specimen will be contaminated. The steps to draw blood are as follows; first, you need to assembly all your equipment – lab request, vaccutainer (the needle & tube holder), needle, tourniquet, & tubes; then, connect the vaccutainer and needle together. Using universal precautions and put gloves on and DO NOT rip off one of the fingers so you can feel better this will only put the phlebotomist at risk. The second step is to explain the procedure to your patient, this will help keep them calmer; then place the tourniquet around the arm, about quarter inch above the bend of elbow.
This next step is where a lot of phlebotomist can make their first mistake. After the tourniquet is in place, you must palpate for the phlebotomy, site to feel for a vein. Most phlebotomist will say “Oh I can't see any veins" that would be because we are supposed to palpate for the vein not go by sight. The vein may look good but in reality it could be a thready (small), rolling, or a vein that has been used to often and would collapse. Most likely this could cause the phlebotomist to miss the vein. Then cleanse the area with an alcohol pad and insert the needle at a 15° angle with the bevel up (bevel is the where the needle becomes flat with small hole or bore showing to the a point) until a flash of blood and draw the specimen according to the tests ordered. To finish up I would then take the tourniquet off, remove the last vial and apply a gentle pressure while removing the needle from your patients arm, then bandage. Remember to educate your patient about bruising.
When working with infants and toddlers, this is very difficult as the infants cannot communicate with us and the toddlers are limited in their communication. So it will take extra time and a special skill to do a venous blood draw. In work with children it is called Pediatric Phlebotomy and in most cases