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Venepuncture and phlebotomy: animated demonstration

Equipment needed

• Non-sterile gloves

• Tourniquet (ideally disposable)

• Alcohol wipe

• Cotton wool/gauze swabs

• Vacutainer barrel, or syringe

• Green 21-gauge or blue 23-gauge needle, or vacutainer needle

• Sample bottles including blood culture specimen bottles if required

• Sticky tape

• Sharps container.

Contraindications

If the lucid and coherent patient refuses blood tests, do not perform venepuncture.

Other contraindications to venepuncture include:

• Ipsilateral arteriovenous fistula or arteriovenous malformation

• Ipsilateral axillary surgery or radiotherapy

• Ipsilateral lymphoedema

• Local infection or cellulitis

• Severe bleeding tendency or coagulopathy.

Indications

In general, you can use blood tests to:

• Diagnose conditions (together with the clinical history and exam findings)

• Monitor responses to therapy and adverse effects with treatment

• Monitor patients in the perioperative period

• Screen for diseases

• Monitor for recurrence of disease.

Complications

• Temporary pain and discomfort

• Bruising, bleeding, and formation of a hematoma

• Local infection

• Arterial puncture

• Failure to obtain an adequate sample.

Aftercare

Press on the puncture site for a sufficient amount of time to stop bleeding. Apply a sticking plaster or cotton wool and tape to the puncture site.

Carefully label all samples and request forms and dispose of all sharps and other items in a sharps bin or clinical waste bin.