What is the difference between arteries and veins.
Arteries are muscular, and they pulse with the heart. They carry oxygen rich blood away from the heart. Veins are elastic, they carry deoxygentated blood back to the heart.
What is the additive in the light blue tube?
Sodium citrate, Na citrate
What is done with the tubes after performing your blood draw?
Once inverted the proper number of times, the tubes are labeled with patient name, DOB, medical record number as well as time, date and initial of phlebotomist, and sent to the lab with the test requisition.
What is inverted, labeled with all appropriate information and sent to lab with requisition form (if outpatient)
When drawing blood cultures, which tube should be draw first? Aerobic, or Anaerobic? Which Tube should be drawn if you can only obtain one blood culture?
Aerobic
A 17 year old patient vehemently refuses to allow you to collect a blood specimen he is threatening to harm you if you come near him, what do you do?
Since he is a minor it is up to the parents if they want his blood drawn or not. You may try convincing him and obtaining his consent. If he continues to refuse you should inform the doctor and the nurse in charge of him, The MD may consider chemical sedation for the patient, or holding him down. This can be a tough scenario and sometimes we can feel conflicted about taking blood against someone's will. The MD and parents will decide if the labs are medically necessary and to what lengths they will go in order to collect the specimen.