Hello! I am completing my new grads this year and am loving it so much! I have the opportunity to learn to cannula people and venipuncture tests. Has anyone got any good tips on how to do either or both procedures?
Eg especially regarding hard to find veins, or anything you picked up over time?
I’ve finished the theory and now onto the practical 😬✨
Hi friends.
I’m a baby tech that graduated a few months ago from tech school, and I’ve been feeling really down about my venipuncture skills recently.
When I was in school, I was pretty decent and I usually hit veins pretty readily any time we had labs that required venipuncture and during my internships, But now that I’m working full time in a clinic, I feel like my skills are so much worse. Maybe it’s because of the sheer amount of times I draw blood a day is higher, but I find myself fishing for veins and/or passing it along for someone else to try more than I’m proud to admit (I have a 2 poke/2 site rule for myself- I can try any site twice, and I can try 2 different sites, but if I don’t get it, I find someone else.)
Any tips? It’s been really disheartening for me, since I feel like I should be getting better, not worse, and I’m just wondering what I’m doing wrong.
Hi, I’m currently in school to become a LVT and currently we’ve doing our venipuncture labs on stray animas that we take care of and end up adopting at our school. A lot of them do not handle restraint or blood draws. So it makes it very hard to practice drawing blood. I’ve tried three different times now on cephalic and jugular my first two dogs I tried on were psycho and no one in my group were very good restrainers. But today I tried jugular and my dog was calm and I accidentally pulled out the needle. ( we only get one chance to attempt ) and after that I’ve just been really down on myself and feel like I’m never gonna get it. Even though I know it takes practice, it’s just hard. Especially when I’m trying so hard to get it right and when everyone else in my group got it off cephalic. I just feel not the best about myself. Because this is literally what I want to do so bad and I’m just down. Anyone have any encouraging words or tips or something.
Ok techs, do you prefer using the jugular, saphenous, or cephalic for blood draws? I feel like everybody has a preference and I’m so curious to hear what they are.
I went for a routine blood test last week and experienced something that has never happened to me before. The needle insertion was quite painful and I could actually feel the vacuum pull on my left arm. The pain and the suction feeling kept getting worse and I started feeling faint. The woman doing the blood draw said that barely any blood was coming out and she'd have to try again.
After a few minutes she tried on my right arm and I didn't feel a thing – no pain, no vacuum pull. She said she used a smaller needle.
She recommended to me that I offer my right arm in the future because the veins are smaller. But in the past I've had no issue with blood draws from my left arm, and have actually been told to use this arm because the veins are more visible.
One week later and my left arm is feeling sore and weak. There is still a bruise at the puncture site.
Any idea what happened? Why could I feel the blood being pulled from my vein and how come barely any blood was coming out? How can I prevent this from happening in the future?
Thanks!
I'm not an RN but very new to phlebotomy through the American Red Cross.. I would like to reach out from some experts on some fundamental tips and little tricks. One thing I have a bit of a hard time with is keeping a stable flow from a Donor. At first they will flow easily between 75-100ml/min but will drop down to sub 45. Also how the hell do you gets some of these powder free gloves on after hand sanitizer. Not to mention how the gloves stick to everything! Including the tape that I'm trying to set on the needle after it's been inserted. Nothing like playing tug of war with tape on a needle only centimeters in a Donor. Thank you!!!
I’m a young adult considering a MLT program. Of the ones I’ve come across, they all teach venipuncture. As the title says, the idea of having to do venipuncture/learn phlebotomy makes me woozy and my hands sweat lol. Blood itself doesn’t bother me too much. I think its the idea of putting a needle in someone (or myself) and potentially hurting them that freaks me out.
Are there programs that don’t include this? If not, has any MLT felt the same or similar and was able to overcome the nerves/fear? What has been your experience?
Thanks in advance
Edit: I really appreciate all of your responses. They’ve given great insight and have been really helpful. I have a bit to think about! Again, thank you all. I hope everyone stays well and safe. Happy New Year!
I know the hospital Phillip monitors have a venipuncture mode to utilize the cuff as a venous constricting bad. Now, I’ve never seen it done on a lifepak and have never seen/read it mentioned in any of the manuals. Is such a setting available?
Hi askscience,
I am aware of the clotting mechanism for arterial injury (primary and secondary haemostatic plug etc), but what is the mechanism by which veins stop bleeding after a blood has been taken?
Thanks
Anyone know what's the most used venipuncture method in the Philippines?
Hey everyone! Thanks in advance for helping me. I'm a fourth semester (final term) vet tech student and even though I have already "passed" my externship skill about jugular venipuncture, I still have a really hard time locating the vein on a patient to patient basis. I was hoping some experienced vets and techs could give any tips including, finding the thoracic inlet (sometimes my Doc tells me I'm holding off at the wrong spot) and visualizing the jugular vein.
All advice is appreciated! Also, I am a very flinchy person naturally, so whenever a patient jumps at the first poke, I also jump (even when I am expecting it -_-) and my needle falls out. How can I get nerves of steel?
I hope this help you as it helped me. This video made by Dr Russell demonstrate venipuncture techniques to find veins easily, draw blood in one go and how to draw blood from rolling veins
I am a 37M, 6 foot 1 inches, 167 pounds, and white.
At the end of October 2019, my left arm was injured during a routine blood test for a physical examination. Since then, there has been pain radiating everywhere on my arm but is primarily centered on my wrist, fingers, and above my bicep. The pain is hard to describe; it feels like sharp needles, tingling, itching, and a dull burning sensation, depending on how I am holding my arm. Whenever I type, a get sharp shots of pain to the wrist, for instance. I wore a sling for two weeks but have since tried to do without it.
I complained of this situation to my doctor soon after it occurred. There were a number of indicators that suggested to me the technician giving the blood draw was distracted, in a hurry, or otherwise not trained very well. I would be happy to go into more detail on this is if required. I have never had such a problem before from a blood test, and the doctor himself has been flabbergasted it was even possible. However, these cases have attracted attention in the medical literature (see links below). The usual diagnosis locates damage to nerves with varying testimony on recovery and prognosis. That my injury has not subsided in three months has me very worried it will never recover.
We scheduled a visit to a neurologist, but he is unable to see me until April. In the meantime, I did a nerve conduction velocity test and an EMG test last week. Strangely, the results came back as normal.
Here is my dilemma: I am a graduate student whose insurance requires me to use the student health center on campus. My primary doctor is the head of the student health center. Since it was one of his employees who injured my arm, he comes across to me as trying to downplay the injury and disown responsibility. He has told me he would call me back two months ago to schedule an appointment with a physical therapist on campus, but he has not called back. I called his nurse following my awareness of the normality of my test results, and I am not receiving a reply back. So I feel completely powerless. I find myself stuck with an injured arm with which I can barely type or do anything with, having to wait until April for a neurologist, when it may not even be my nerve that is damaged. And my doctor is ignoring my calls.
What do you suggest I do in this situation, and do you think it is still possible--given the test results--the damage is to my nerve, or would it be something else? If I have not felt the symp
... keep reading on reddit ➡I have a test tomorrow and i need to show how to do a canine jugular venipuncture restraint Im sort of confused, so do i cup the muzzle in one hand and the other hand is hanging the dogs 2 front limbs from the table by streching it?
Hey, so today was our first day of IV training. And I have run into an issue where it took me three attempts to start an IV on my first live stick. My issue is not a common one. I am colorblind, so the methodology of finding a vein by site does not always work for me. Because some of the veins don't stand out as powerfully as I imagine they do for people who have normal color vision. I've finally been able to start to feel veins, but I'm still struggling to identify sites where I need to start an IV at and identifying where I need to go in at. My instructor straight up told me that if I can't find veins, this isn't the job for me. So I'm feeling a little trouble right now. Any help at all is so appreciated.
I'm currently in MA school and after watching my classmates all do a successful draw I go up and miss completely. I was so nervous that I stuck the needle in twice. This has me feeling really discouraged. I ace all the classwork and can do an intramuscular shot without hesitation. Working in the lab is my dream job but I am worried I am not cut out to draw blood. Does anyone have any advice? I go on my externship in about 6 weeks.
during laboratory practices our instructors always tell us not to pull on the plunger when there isn’t blood in the hub. but a couple of times after inserting the needle and seeing no blood, i’ve tried pulling back the plunger and indeed there was blood filling the syringe. please help, i’m getting very confused as to what to follow because i don’t want to waste any more syringes if blood doesnt flow to the hub.
Hi! I’m a veterinary technician student looking for some good pointers when it comes to Venipuncture. Today I performed my first cephalic and got it on the first try! But the lateral saphenous vein and the jugular vein were giving me some serious problems. I don’t know if I was going in too deep or too close to the surface? I made it into the vein, but nothing was coming out. Please help!
Is it weird that in my class we are using a vacutainer to draw blood from a jugular vein on a dog? Its really hard do you guys have any tips
Hi everyone! I’m currently a veterinary assistant at a clinic, but I’m getting trained in on tech duties (including venipuncture) and I’m going to be attending tech school in the fall. When it comes to drawing blood, I’ve picked up saphenous and cephalic blood draws on dogs (and cats) fairly well, but I struggle with the jugular. I’d say I can feel and hit the jugular about half of the time in dogs, and I have yet to hit it in a cat. I’ve been trying to watch how other techs occlude, and I’ve been experimenting to see what works best for me, but I’d love any advice you guys have about improving on jugular venipuncture. I know practice is the only way to improve, but anything you have to offer would be very much appreciated!!
Hi all!
So some background. I had no prior experience working in the field until I got my license in August 2018. My first year was working in GP, and the first six months of that time was at a SUPER SLOW hospital where on a good day I might get two chances to take blood. The Dr. often did it herself to keep things moving.
For the next six months I transferred to a somewhat busier hospital under the same company. I got more chances to poke here but again the needle was often given to a more experienced hand just to expedite things. I usually got one or two chances a day here to practice but seldom more than that and often less.
Six months ago I left the GP entirely and have since been working and an emergency/specialty hospital. I've seen my technique improve quite a bit working here, because the techs are given a lot more room to do stuff and flap their wings than in GP. I get many more chances to poke and do other things much more frequently than before though.
I feel like my venipuncture is still kind of the elephant in the room though. I know where the veins are and the proper technique and I would say about 80% of my sticks now are successful. However, I'm still not at the point though where I feel like I can do it reliably. I want my docs and fellow techs to have faith in me with this, as I feel like they don't yet. No one ever calls me over to help them if they're having trouble hitting a vein, and I still feel like I need to have a more experienced tech on standby whenever I'm working, because of venipuncture.
I can hold. I can take x-rays. I can do SQ fluids. I can triage. It's just those damn veins are still causing me a lot of frustration and I'm starting to worry about the implications to my career. Is almost two years too long to still be at this point with phlebotomy? Do LVTs get fired because of things like this?
I'm currently doing my externship and had my first venipuncture on a live patient and totally missed the vein twice and patient made a huge deal about it so I feel terrible and my confidence had plummeted and now I'm scared of doing venipuncture and don't want to do it anymore but it seems like drawing blood is inescapable as a MA. Rethinking my choice of being a MA, I'm now thinking I should have gone for radiology tech instead.
Hey friends,
Seeking help.
Sometimes, after a butterfly needle insertion, i'll get flash in the chamber, but the blood will suddenly stop flowing midway through the tubing. I'll try moving the needle around to no avail. Why does this happen? What happened to the vein?
I've run into this problem with IV insertions as well.
What can i do to remedy this without sticking the patient again?
Any other related insight is welcome.
