PIV lab draws,re instill waste blood?

LoveThisNurse · Feb 27, 2010

I've personally haven't done it but from what I understand on my unit is that we try to not poke the kids too many times if we don't have too. The kids don't like it and the parents don't like it either! :crying2: So, if I get a new admit and labs need to be drawn and fluids need to be started, then I coordinate with our nurse IV therapist (we're lucky to have experts on our floors! yay!) to do the lab draw at the same time from the IV start so that lab doesn't have to come later to poke the child again... at least we try to do it this way if possible. We don't put back wasted blood. We try to get exactly what we need. And if there is excess, it gets thrown away in the our pharmaceutical waste. I personally don't even like drawing blood with a syringe. If I start an IV, I would attach those vacuums containers (ours are purple, I don't know to name for it at this time) and then attach the specimen tube to draw blood. There's soooo many practices I've seen used on the floor for the same procedure... And as a new grad, it's frustrating because each nurse swears that there way is the best! :confused:

... I just do what I think is safe for me and the pt.

And if the patient already had a PIV, we don't draw from it. That vein is so precious so all we do is maintain that line and the child will just have to be poked =o(

I hope that helped :)

annabeap, MSN, APRN, NP · Mar 11, 2010

I have never seen or heard of reinstilling wasted blood! I can only imagine reinstilling partially coagulated blood wouldn't be very safe. Now, I'd flush the PIV with maybe 3 mLs and waste that much only. I love PIVs that can draw back... but again, if you're drawing chem10s, electrolyte levels, and the kid's been getting D5NS +20 mEq KCl, it might be more accurate from a real stick. Just a thought. :)