Nurses and Blood Draws?

jeepgirl, LPN, NP · Mar 27, 2005

i do all my own blood draws and lab starts.

casper1 · Mar 27, 2005

At my facility Nurses and the techs do the blood draws. We used to have a phlebotomy team but those days are long gone. Nurses are responsible for putting in IV's. Both techs and nurses draw blood. We work together who ever is free at the moment has the responsibility.

Liann · Mar 27, 2005

If taking the very best care of the patient is the goal, then someone has to draw the lab tests. I am a laboratorian and I do my very best to work with whatever clotted, hemolyzed, skimpy sample I get. I never call for a recollect if I dont absolutely have to. People who are in a hurry often forget to label tubes, or draw the wrong color tube, or struggle to get an ABG, and I can't help that I must get a recollect. Please give us the same benefit of the doubt that you would like to receive from us. I hope that the above mentioned sadistic tech is a rarity.

PedsERRN · Mar 27, 2005

If taking the very best care of the patient is the goal, then someone has to draw the lab tests. I am a laboratorian and I do my very best to work with whatever clotted, hemolyzed, skimpy sample I get. I never call for a recollect if I dont absolutely have to. People who are in a hurry often forget to label tubes, or draw the wrong color tube, or struggle to get an ABG, and I can't help that I must get a recollect. Please give us the same benefit of the doubt that you would like to receive from us. I hope that the above mentioned sadistic tech is a rarity.

Would you like to come work at my hospital?

Tweety, BSN, RN · Mar 27, 2005

I'm pretty good at drawing blood with a needle and syringe. But for some reason I'm not good with the phleb's way of doing it. Ocassionally, I'll draw blood for a stat lab. To me drawing blood with a needle and syringe is as easy as starting an IV.

I wasn't taught phlebotomy in nursing school either. :)

CarVsTree · Mar 27, 2005

I'm a tech and it is my job to do the blood draws. The RN will draw blood off of a PICC or other central line in place. If we have very difficult sticks, we usually help each other out. There are some nurses on my floor that have a lot of eperience and can get them when I or another tech cannot though. There are other nurses that couldn't hit a vein that looks like a pipeline though. Of course it is the same for techs as well.

BTW, in my school we are not allowed to do blood draws or start IV's. We will be taught this by our preceptors at the hospital after graduation. Don't sweat it. It is not the most difficult skill in the world and you will get better with time.

camay1221_RN · Mar 28, 2005

I work in L&D and the RN's do the lab draws. We also get our labs when starting an IV when possible, but there are those who need to have them done more than once, so we do them ourselves.

BeachNurse · Mar 28, 2005

I am a pre-nursing student so fogive me for not knowing this:
Can you do blood draws as a nurse? I had my blood done today at a lab and the phlebotomy girl told me that nurses don't get taught anymore how to draw blood and that they are actually "bad" at taking blood, in her opinion. I thought Block 1 of nursing school taught you this? No?
Also, as a nurse, can you get positions as a phlebotomist (this will depend on answer above , or as a MA? I know you would be paid less, but just as a second job or something?
Thanks in advance to the nurses here that will reply!
Janice

I'm sure you have received tons of responses by now, but I wanted to share my info. First of all, blood-drawing is a skill. LIke riding a bike, the more you do it the easier it will become. It is my opinion that anyone can learn to draw blood, nurse or not. I drew blood in my job as a clinical (nursing) assistant for two years before I ever graduated nursing school. My nursing school offered a course in Phlebotomy and IV skills but I never took it because I didn't need to. There would be no reason to take a job as a phlebotomist if you have a nursing degree, but I'm sure you could as a second job. If you needed a second job, why not work agency or PRN and make 2-3 times more money? More often, phlebotomy positions are being cut at hospitals and the nurse HAS to do it.

chimama · Mar 28, 2005

I have drawn buckets of blood in the past 30+ years! I am the one the Phleas come get when they can't get the blood.I am not overqualified, undertrained, or "bad" at drawing blood.

LadyT618, MSN, APRN, NP · Mar 28, 2005

I'm in the home stretch of nursing school and in my second to last clinical rotation with an excellent ER nurse and she is teaching us IV insertion and expects us to start at least one before we leave her to move on to our next rotation. They've told us that most hospitals have their own IV teams, but as I've recently discovered, nurses should know how to perform this task, esp if they work in the ER.