Drawing Blood

Drawing blood is not as challenging as you may think. When I started my job at the hospital, I had no previous experience in drawing blood. They put me through a training that lasted about five days, eight hours per day. There are many simple steps to drawing someones blood. The three biggest steps are waiting for a requisition to print off, preparing all of your equipment, and finally draw the blood. Step one is to get the requisition and take it into the patients room, you use this to verify the patient. You first identify yourself and indicate the procedure that is about to take place. Check the date and order time on the requisition form. Verify their name, date of birth, and sex. You have to verify the patients allergies to make sure they are not allergic to latex or any of the antiseptics or adhesives that are to be used. If patient is unresponsive you are not allowed to draw the blood unless they have a patient sticker on their armband. You have to verify who the person is. You then check the requisition form for what tests are being requested so you will know what and how many of each tubes to draw blood into. Step two is to prepare your equipment that will be used in this process. The number one item would be gloves, you use these to not only protect yourself but also the patient. You will need to have a tourniquet, 70% isopropyl alcohol wipes, gauze sponge, to apply to site after needle is withdrawn, an adapter to use with the evacuated collection system, needles, adhesive bandage, to protect site after collection, and tubes to place the blood into. After getting all of this together properly you move on to the final step. Step three, this is the final process, the actual blood draw. First tie the tourniquet about 3 inches above the site you are wanting to withdraw blood from. Have the patient make a fist but do not have them pump their first. Then palpate and trace the path of the vein with the index finger. The vein should feel cord-like and it should roll easily. When you find the vein you are wanting to draw blood from you then prepare the site. Using an alcohol pad, clean the site in circular motion. Let the site air dry. Next, grasp the patients arm firmly. Place needle in a fifteen to thirty degree angle with the arm. Swiftly insert needle through the skin into the vein. Then fill the required tubes. In the meantime of you filling the last tube you will remove the tourniquet from the arm. You then swiftly remove the needle from the arm and safely lock the needle. Immediately following, apply the gauze to the site with addequette pressure to avoid a hematoma. After applying pressure for approximately fifteen seconds you bandage the site. Then dispose of the needle in a sharps container and throw contaminated materials in their proper containers. Mix blood in a shaking motion. Then label all tubes of blood in the patients room. Finally you are ready to deliver it to the lab.