Vacutainer question

[doxielover304]

I just have a question about devices that draw your blood... I know one type of device could cause your patients vein to collapse/bruising and that there's a better device out there that's safer for the patient. But I can't remember which type it was. Can anybody help me out? A nurse gave me advice to never use a certain type of vacutainer and she told me that she'd never use one type that a lot of places use.

Thanks for any replies. :)

[NICUmiiki, DNP, NP]

Well vacutainer is a set of devices that can be mixed and matched to meet your needs.

Deciding on what to use requires a little skill and knowledge of how different veins react to being punctured.

I wouldn't use a big needle to straight stick a small hand vein, but I would use it for a juicy AC because the AC is less fragile and you get blood quicker.

You can pretty much get anything with a butterfly (small needle with wings), but it can sometime be very slow. It's a good needle to use when you are first starting to learn venipuncture.

For those more fragile or small veins, I like to draw into a syringe instead of directly into the blood tubes.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

A lot of this is a matter of preference. I've only ever used butterflies with syringes to draw blood peripherally... simply because I work in pediatrics and that's how I was trained.