How to collect A Blood Specimen
Blood draws can be rather intimidating as a new nurse or phlebotomist. You don't want to poke the patient and then not have anything to show for it! There are a couple of tricks for patients who have difficult veins:
- Flick the spot where the vein is. I know this sounds strange, but it helps to puff the little vein up! Don't be shy about flicking it either.
- Put a warm blanket around the arm that you are going to be drawing blood from.
- Have the patient make a fist with the hand of the arm you are drawing from.
I think that videos probably speak much better than words when talking about drawing blood. The first video is a peripheral venous blood draw and the second is a blood draw from a central line. The second is performed on a mannequin. Enjoy!