Chapter 8 Review

You are a phlebotomy student on rotation at an outpatient site. A patient who seems extremely apprehensive about having her blood drawn tells you that she is afraid of needles. What should you do?

Ask an experienced phlebotomist to perform the draw for you

Which type of disease is most likely to cause tremors?

Parkinson's

A student asks the patient for permission to draw a blood specimen. Which of the following answers implies that the student does not really have permission?

Yes, but I would rather not

Interventions to ease pain in collecting blood specimens from infants include:

al of the above (EMLA, oral sucrose, pacifiers)

Skin changes in elderly patients can make it harder to:

anchor veins

When should additive tubes be mixed?

as soon as they are removed from the holder

You have made two unsuccessful attempts while trying to collect an ASAP specimen on an inpatient. The specimen cannot be collected by skin puncture. What should you do next?

ask another phlebotomist to collect it

Which type of test requisition has been shown to decrease laboratory errors?

bar coded

How can you tell that you are in a vein when drawing blood with a butterfly?

blood usually appears in the tubing

The time is 0750 hours. You have received the following test requests on different patients. Which test specimen should you collect first?

cortisol ordered for 0800

You are in the process of identifying an inpatient. The patient's verbal confirmation of name and date of birth matches the requisition, but the medical record number is different. What should you do?

do not collect the specimen until the problem has been addressed and resolved

There are two patients in a room. One of them has a latex allergy. You have a request to collect a blood specimen on the other one. How should you proceed?

do not take anything that contains latex into the room

You are performing a venipuncture on a difficult vein using a butterfly. You have an SST and a light blue-topped tube to collect. How do you proceed?

draw a clear tube, fill and mix the light-blue top, then fill and mix the SST

You have a request to collect a stat specimen. A doctor is with the patient when you arrive. What should you do?

excuse yourself and politely ask the doctor for permission to do the draw

Which of the following statements describes proper venipuncture technique?

fill additive tubes until the vacuum is exhausted

A vein that has patency:

has a bounce or resilience to it

What is the most critical error a phlebotomist can make?

misidentifying a patient specimen

The best way to judge patency of a vein is to:

press and release it several times to determine resilience

The proper way to transfer blood from syringe into an ETS tube is to:

safely remove the needle and attach a transfer device to fill the tube

Which needle can be removed from the blood collection unit before disposal?

syringe needle