int's

TennRN2004 · Mar 8, 2006

Does anybody out there draw blood from int's? Does your facility have a policy for doing this? Do you know of any literature related to this topic?

The only time I have every drawn blood from an int is on a patient who had a TPA infusion going for a PE, and could not have any sticks. It is obviously not your preferred way of getting blood, and our int only lasted a short time with us accessing it for blood draws. It's been over a year ago, so I can't remember for sure, but I think they ended up putting a line in the pt finally in the radiology lab. Don't know why they didn't give us a line to begin with on a pt like that....I don't know of an actual policy at my facility, but for us to draw from an int, we have to be pretty desperate for labs with no other way to get blood. I would say 9 times out of 10, if the patient is that poor of a stick for IVs and lab draws, they'll end up with a line of some sort eventually, usually a PICC if it's a long term need.

AfloydRN, BSN, RN · Nov 5, 2006

Our hospital has an IV team, so I don't know the actual policy... however we are told it's a big NO.When I worked in ER we always did- save the patient a poke if you can

augigi, CNS · Nov 5, 2006

If I knew what an "int" was, I'd tell you...?

jbp0529 · Nov 5, 2006

On the flip-side from everyone else's post, my hospital's ICU's frequently draw blood from an INT, however they usually have to be at least a 20 gauge, and pull a decent amount of blood back, otherwise the labs hemolize (spelled right??). Floor patients still get stuck by phlebotomy, however. We don't really have a policy that says "do" or "dont", so the norm is that everyone does. This was a shock to me when I first started working where I'm at now, as my last place highly discouraged this practice.

I guess the good thing is it saves the pt from another poke, if possible. And I haven't noticed too many IV's going bad as a result from doing this, but maybe I'm just lucky. Oh well... as the saying goes, "when in Rome..." :-)