My floor is starting to have the ICU nurses draw their own labs. Usually the nurse would have the phlebotomists from the lab come up to do a venipunture, unless the patient had some sort of central line in place, then the nurse will do the draw. So now that we have to draw our own lab, most of the nurses are drawing from peripheral IV catheter (PIVC). I always thought that it was ok to draw from PIVC only upon the initial insertion of the catheter, and then you have to do venipunture thereafter. On a previous post, it was mentioned that “the blood that is near the IV is not good for sampling anymore because it doesn't flow/mix at the same rate” is that the evidence based answer? So my questions are:
1. What is the common nursing practice out there?
2. If it is common or uncommon to draw from PIVC: what is the rationale?
