Wednesday, February 07, 2007
So I've been MIA coz I found myself a full time job in a pathology lab. What a great opportunity it has been for me! The lab is attached to a private doctors' clinic. We process the samples of those patients and ultimately send them to a processing lab in Melbourne for testing. So my job has really not been that complicated. Alot of the testing has been for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea and hepatitis. It's mostly specimen sorting mixed in with some aliquoting (extraction of a small sample of serum/plasma from a blood tube), centrifuging, streaking plates and... venipuncture! Bob and Natalie have dropped by the lab as volunteer victims for me and tomorrow will be by first real patient attempt. I feel confident but also still a bit timid that I will hurt the patient. My co-worker, the doctor, tells me I need to separate myself from the patient and only see the arm when I am going to puncture the it. If anyone has any suggestions out there, I'd like to hear them before I do my first blood extraction tomorrow!
Comments:
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1. Wipe off the alcohol before you poke them with the needle. Most of the pain is from the alcohol burning the open skin.
2. The best veins are the ones you could feel, not the ones you could see.
3. Antecubital veins are the best for blood draw. You usually have to feel for them.
4. Old people veins could be deceptive. They will roll and pop.
5. Make sure old people stop bleeding after the blood draw. Sometimes when they move around to unroll their sleeve, the blood starts oozing again. That happened to me yesterday. The dude’s entire shirt sleeve was drenched with blood before he noticed.
6. If the person is nice, use a butterfly. If the person is not nice, use a larger needle.
7. If you miss the vein, make them feel bad by saying they have small veins. “This never happens to me. You need to exercise and drink more fluids.”
2. The best veins are the ones you could feel, not the ones you could see.
3. Antecubital veins are the best for blood draw. You usually have to feel for them.
4. Old people veins could be deceptive. They will roll and pop.
5. Make sure old people stop bleeding after the blood draw. Sometimes when they move around to unroll their sleeve, the blood starts oozing again. That happened to me yesterday. The dude’s entire shirt sleeve was drenched with blood before he noticed.
6. If the person is nice, use a butterfly. If the person is not nice, use a larger needle.
7. If you miss the vein, make them feel bad by saying they have small veins. “This never happens to me. You need to exercise and drink more fluids.”
Thank you for the great suggestions! I escaped another day of venipuncture as all the patients who came in today were on the nervous side. I got good evidence that your #2 comment is extremely valuable though as my co-worker, the doctor, decided to do a venipuncture even though he couldn't feel the vein on the chubby arm and missed...
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