#tips

Reducing Phlebotomy Pain and Anxiety

Last month we got curious about pain and anxiety. Researchers are reporting a dramatic increase in the number of needle-phobic patients and those who express significant anxiety about needles in healthcare. So we asked our subscribers and visitors to our web site what they are using to reduce the pain and anxiety of phlebotomy on pediatric and adult patients. For pediatrics, over 70 percent of those responding said they use verbal distraction (conversing, small talk, etc,)(85

Phlebotomy's Seven Deadly Sins

Drawing blood is serious business. When performed incorrectly it’s not only a shame, it can be deadly. Consequences for deviating from the standards may not be immediate, but sooner or later these “Seven Deadly Sins” of phlebotomy can condemn not only your patient’s hope for health and wellness, but yours as well. Ignorance. It isn’t bliss. It’s dangerous. Those who draw blood samples can’t afford to be uninformed regarding phlebotomy’s prevailing standards. When you don’t kn

Ten Things Not to Say to Your Patients

1. You have rolling veins. When a vein “rolls” it’s not the patient’s fault. It’s usually because the vein wasn’t properly anchored in the first place. 2. Your veins collapse. When patients hear this, their confidence in your abilities is likely to collapse, too. As trained healthcare professionals, it’s our job to know what equipment is needed to access the vein the first time. Make sure syringes, small-bore needles and low-volume tubes are in your arsenal. 3. I promise I'll

Best Practices in Tube Handling

Handling all the threats to blood-sample integrity is an enormously complex undertaking. Human blood is complicated. We’ve been studying it for centuries and we still don’t know everything there is to know about it. And what we do know is exceedingly difficult to apply every time we handle a sample. That’s because the preanalytical phase, or pre-examination phase, is predominantly a manual process that requires human programming. At the point of collection, machines don’t dra