Intravenous blood draws

[aleanth]

Hello this is my first thread, just curious if anyone is drawing blood samples from PIV's in kids. Obviously, there are certain criteria but just curious.

thanks

[kimmie518]

If the kid has a PIV, we'll try anything to get blood off of it.

Today I turned a kid upside down to get it off a scalp PIV. It was either that, or a tourniquet (but I couldn't figure out where to put it).

[gal220RN, BSN, RN]

Hi there!

I have found, along with a lot of other posters, that it is very difficult to draw back from a PIV for labs, unless it is right at the time of insertion. I also have found if you have a 22or 20g PIV in an AC you might have a little more success, but it is minimal.

If you have a single PIV for your IVF, meds, blood, etc, I would MUCH rather have a butterfly stick for labs to get what you need. I wouldn't risk loosing your access.

Thank heaven for CVL's, PICC's and PAL's- the PICU RN's best friends!

[preemieRNkate, RN]

If the kid has a PIV, we'll try anything to get blood off of it.

Today I turned a kid upside down to get it off a scalp PIV. It was either that, or a tourniquet (but I couldn't figure out where to put it).

For scalp IVs, we put the tourniquet lower on the head than the vein that we're aiming for. For example, if it's the vein that runs straight down the forehead, we'll stretch the tourniquet across the forehead (like by the eyebrows). We typically use fat rubber bands for tourniquets, wiped down with an antimicrobial wipe and then cut.

We rarely draw blood off a PIV in the NICU where I work (and when I say rarely I mean never). Sometimes we'll use a new PIV start to collect blood, but we let it drip into a microtainer off the angio before flushing it and hooking up fluids.