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Drawing Blood Procedure- How to Talk to a Patient | Registered Nurse RN

Hey Everyone,

It has been a while since I have updated this nursing blog. I received another ask me a question. This question comes from Maria Capela and here is what she asked:

“What’s the actual recital to tell a person when you are going to draw blood?

For test purposes…and certification”

Drawing Blood Procedure- What to Say To Patients Getting Blood Drawn

Maria, thank you for your question and I’m sorry about the delay (been very busy with school). Drawing blood is one of my favorite tasks a Nurse performs! However, it does take time to learn and lots of practice. I have always learned that when you are going to draw blood from a person you have to do the following: check and verify the doctors orders, use two patient identifiers (or whatever your hospital policy uses….my hospital requires two patient identifiers…such as asking the patient to state their name and birth date and comparing it to their chart or ID band), then proceed by telling the patient that you are going to draw blood from one of their veins in their arm, they will feel a little discomfort, and explain to the patient about the labes.

For example, are you drawing the labs to check for electrolytes level, PT or PTT (clotting time) levels….etc. Then when you are finished drawing blood place a 4×4 gauzes over the insertion site and tape it (also instruct the patient to hold pressure on it, especially if they are on blood thinners like Heparin, Lovenox, Coumadin) I think that pretty much covers it…that is all I would say to the patient before would draw blood.

As far as talking to the patient, it is usually best to distract them a bit while you draw it. I have seen some nurses ask a really good question that causes the patient to think for a second while they quickly extract the blood. This thinking tends to take their mind of what is going on, and they are less intimidated by needles (some people really fear needles).  So I would suggest you watch a couple of nurses who do this really well to get some ideas, and maybe practice a bit.

I don’t know if that is everything but it covers the major bases.

I hope you ace your test! If you ever have anymore question don’t hesitate to hit me up! Thanks again for your question!

Until next time,

Sarah 😉

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