Venous Blood Collection

Different Color Stoppers Used to Code Blood Specimen Tube

* Yellow - Blood Cultures. * Red - Collects whole blood that is allowed to clot. * Red&Black - Hs a gel in the bottom that liquefies and travels to the center of the tube and separates red cells from the Serum. * Lavender - Complete blood count or whole blood tests. * Gray - Glucose. * Blue - Tests blood prothrombin ( coagulation studies). * Green - Tests for chemical constituents.

Supplies&Equipment

- Gloves, tourniquet, needles, gauze, alcohol, Tubes, plastic holder, Bandaid or tape, sharps container, tube rock, requisition form. - Applying a Tourniquet. - Performing a Venipuncture. Carefully discard the Needle in the sharps container, after collection, dispose of needle using an appropriate. - Complete Lab Forms and place specimens in transport bag. - Check patient for bleeding status.

Venipuncture Procedure

- Important Steps: 1. Always use proper PPE. 2. Always identify your patient. 3. Always check the Physicians order. 4. Always be sure to ask patient Fasting State, as well as if they have ever had blood drawn before. 5. Always use Safety Guidelines and OSHA Standards. 6. Always make sure you have all your equipment prepared prior to the patient's arrival. 7. Never Reshield ( recap) a needle!

Venipuncture Procedure

- Place tourniquet 2-3" above the site. - Choose the best vein according to palpation integrity. - Cleanse site with alcohol ( circulation motion). - Use a 15-20 degree angle, bevel up, " l2" deep. - Use proper draw sequence according to colors. - Remove Tourniquet when last tube is 1/2 full. - Withdraw needle at the same angle as the insertion angle.

Quality Control

- Review order, verify procedure, prepare equipment, paperwork and work area. - Identify patient and explain procedure. - Confirm pretest preparations. - Collect specimen using Sterile equipment and proper technique. - Use correct, labeled collection tubes. - Dispose of hazardous waste property. - Decontaminate the work area. - Prepare specimen for transport.

Collection Tubes

- Vacutainer System- includes disposable needles, adapters, tubes. - Vacutainer tubes- have a vacuum ( suction) inside to facilitate collection blood sample. - Classified by color, additive, amount of draw.

How to Obtain Serum from Whole Blood

- Whole blood is drawn in tubes with red or red and black stoppers and is allowed to stand for 30 mins. So that the whole blood clots and the Serum rises to the top of the tube. - Serum is obtained by centrifugation of the tube. The top liquid portion is Serum. - Plasma is obtained by drawing blood a tube with an anticoagulant, ( no clot forms) plasma is the top liquid portion after centrifugation.

The Correct Order of Draw for Blood Specimen Tubes

- Yellow. - Blue. - Red/Red black. - Green. - Lavender. - Gray.

Identifying The Additives Contained by The Color of the Tubes

- Yellow: SPS. - Blue: Sodium Citrate. - Green: Heparin. - Lavender: EDTA. - Gray: Sodium fluoride.