Help! I missed this question...why?

[californiadreaming]

obtaining blood specimens via a pipette is an acceptable practice.

the answer was false.

i missed it...why?

[Boog'sCRRN246, RN]

What was your rationale for thinking the answer was true? I think I've only seen pipettes used in a laboratory setting after the actual blood specimen was already obtained...via a butterfly needle or pulled from a PICC, etc.

[anonymousstudent]

That's interesting...I've never seen that. My son has had 2 specimens taken recently, both via finger stick and pipette, one in the Children's lab and one at the ped's office. So this is being practiced.

Did you ask the teacher yet? I love to ask these kind of questions via email.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

I wasn't aware that a Pipette was used to draw blood. I thought pipettes were used to transfer samples??

[CuriousMe]

obtaining blood specimens via a pipette is an acceptable practice.

the answer was false.

i missed it...why?

i haven't seen pipettes used for venipuncture, but haven seen them used if doing finger sticks (the pipette draws up the blood from the finger) like simple iron or blood glucose testing.

[anonymousstudent]

OH...I did not take this literally enough. I think your 3rd and 4th responses are right on. She's asking if you should use the pipette to actually puncture the skin and collect blood!?!?!??!!?! I'm seriously afraid that somebody would even consider doing that. So you'd first need to make another kind of puncture, with some kind of normal method, finger stick, through an IV, and THEN use the pipette.

Pipette to poke through the skin....gives me the creeps.

[californiadreaming]

Thanks for everyone's responses. I hate trick questions!!

[jjjoy, LPN]

"obtaining blood specimens" is a rather vague phrase. In the past, I saw pipettes used on neonates to get blood from a heel puncture. Would that not count as "obtaining blood" or is that not done anymore? What's the instructor's rationale on this question?

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

The tube used in finger sticks is usually referred to as a capillary tube not a pipette. (a thin glass tube, usually used if the specimen is for a hemoglobin level (though sometimes referred to as an iron level). There are also special microtainer collection tubes that you can "scrape" or catch the specimen from a heel or finger stick directly into the tube.

If a standard blood collection needle isn't used, a nurse or tech can use a syringe.

A pipette is generally used in a laboratory setting to transfer solutions and/or specimens. Generally pipettes have a suction mechanism on one end and a specific volume setting to capture the proper specimen/solution amount.

I've worked as a phlebotomist for 16 years. The only pipettes we used was for sample processing not collection.

[jjjoy, LPN]

Good point, mom-n-student - I was getting pipette mixed up with capillary tube! Thanks for the correction!

Still... wouldn't matching a device name to a picture or selecting the most appropriate device from a set of choices be a better test of one's practical knowledge? While knowing the correct name of medications and procedures IS important, knowing exactly what a pipette is and what it's used for doesn't seem so important for nurses. Why even bother making it a test question when there is much other immediately relevant and crucial info out there to test on?