How full do you fill your lab vials?

[Exhuasted]

Just wondering how full lab tubes really need to be. I usually try to get mine about halfway (unless it's a blue top), but the other day I saw a more experienced nurse sending off blood with hardly anything in the tube, and I really was expecting the lab to say it wasn't enough blood, but as far as I know they didn't, so now I'm just wondering how full they really have to be...

[oceangirl1234]

Our lab likes to cancel every single test if it is not full. I understand for blue tops but it is so frustrating. Usually if they are a hard poke then we will write that on the req and ask them to please spin.

[YumCookies, BSN, RN]

I go by the mL amount on the tube.

[mrsboots87]

Also consider how sick your patient is. I personally like to connect a 10mL syringe to a butterfly. Then I can control the vacuum and control how much blood I draw. I never take more than needed for however many tubes I need, but if I get less then the desired amount, I can ration out what I got into most important tubes first. Like, I fill my blues and purples, then put remaining into my serum separators or whatever other tube I may be using. Some of my patients Hgb drops if they get so much as a scratch, so I take as little as possible to get the results I need. I don't want to have to keep sticking patients repeatedly because a tube didn't fill all the way.

[Dohardthings]

If I have plenty of blood, then until the tube stop sucking blood in. If they are a hard stick, then to the bottom of the label. But if I had a vein blow or something, I try to send what I got and see if they make me redraw. So far they haven't.