Are you a nurse? Do you draw blood? Can you take our Quick Survery?

FLmomof5 · Feb 6, 2012

What is your educational background?

ADN

Years of experience?

1

Years drawing blood?

1

What kind of education did you get for doing blood draws?

Certified during NS.

What was the most challenging part about drawing blood?

Skinny veins that roll....especially on the elderly.

Are there any tip or tricks you have learned throughout the years that you have found useful?

On the elderly, it is often easier to draw blood if you don't use a tourniquet. For some reason, the tourniquet can cause the vein to blow.

How often do you have to draw blood on your clients?

Once or twice a week on average.

Which labs do you most frequently draw?

vanco troughs and PICC/midline draws. (The lab techs aren't allowed to do the PICC/midline ones.)

Are there any particular labs that are difficult to draw?

All the same. Once you poke a vein, what you are drawing for is irrelevant.

prmenrs, RN · Feb 6, 2012

Diploma

42--~30 yrs in NICU

38 ( just a guess);

Inservice; spent a day w/the IV therapy nurse; also had inservice and sign-off on arterial blood draws but only did it on adults;

Hardest--newborns are surprisingly strong and agile. You need one hand to hold the extremity-and sometimes another nurse- so you can only operate the device w/the other hand.

On nbs, you can use a rubber band as a tourniquet, but often just a tight grip gives you enough. Adjust the grip for gestational age and squirminess. Put the tourniquet higher on the arm--think of the vein as a tube, give yourself more "volume" in the tube. Adults can be cold and, if so, are harder to draw from or start an IV. Use heel warmers on babies.

I drew blood on pts frequently more than once/shift, depending on what their problems were. If they were really sick, they had lines, that helps.

Most frequent: septic w/u--cbc, blood culture; also bilirubins

most difficult: Newborn Screening tests: 6-one cm dots on blotting paper, had to be drawn just so on a newborn who was usually kicking as hard as s/he could (and I don't blame them one bit), newborns often don't have very good perfusion in their feet yet, so you have to squeeze the foot and/or repuncture. No, you were not allowed to do a venipuncture instead, and only very rarely were Umbilical artery specimens allowed.

TMI??

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Feb 6, 2012

What is your educational background? ASN, BSN

Years of experience? 33 1/2 years

Years drawing blood? 33 1/2 years

What kind of education did you get for doing blood draws? on the job

What was the most challenging part about drawing blood? learning to hit a moving target

Are there any tip or tricks you have learned throughout the years that you have found useful? Have everything ready, needle, tourniquet, tape, tubes,swabs and help to hold the little ones.

How often do you have to draw blood on your clients? IN the emergency Room you draw on almost every patient......30 times a day.....depending in the day.

Which labs do you most frequently draw? CBC (complete blood count), electrolytes, BUN Creat, blood cultures

Are there any particular labs that are difficult to draw? Yes.....dehydrated 9 to 14 month old's. They have fat little arms tiny little veins that are smaller because they are dehydrated and the wriggle like crazy!!!! :loveya:

prmenrs, RN · Feb 6, 2012

" ...Yes.....dehydrated 9 to 14 month old's. They have fat little arms tiny little veins that are smaller because they are dehydrated and the wriggle like crazy!!!!"

And they are frequently screaming right in your ear!