Bad Phlebotomy Unappreciation Thread

[GWD]

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So I have to get blood drawn regularly since I work with primates. They are just looking for things like Hep B and TB... I guess the idea is to make sure I don't make the colony sick, and that they haven't gotten me sick.

Anyway, today I had to have a draw, and I am like a walking pin cushion right now!!! Took them 5 attempts (and I know I am not a hard stick): 3 in my cubital fossa and 2 on the back of my hands. And one of my cubital fossa has a hematoma the size of a silver dollar from all the digging around in there they did.

Uggghhh!!

Phlebotomy always blows my mind... It appears so simple and straightforward, but it seems to be one of the hardest skills to master. I consider myself a pretty poor phlebotomists personally. So maybe this is just karma coming around to bite me in the ass for all of the bad sticks I've made.

It always fascinates me though when someone is REALLY good at it. I've been tapped before where they just hit it out of the park first try, and I didn't really even feel it. I just think it takes LOTS and LOTS of practice. It's more an art form than a science really.

 

[URHere]

Perfect timing on this thread!

I had blood drawn yesterday and it was just a mess (no pun intended). The nurse stuck me, missed, and then proceeded to dig around for 5 minutes while telling me, "trust me, it's easier if I try to find it once I'm already under the skin. It would be worse for me to pull it out and try again".

Sigh. This is why I hate getting blood drawn...

 

[QofQuimica]

If it makes you feel any better, I'm a ridiculously easy bruiser. Even if they stick me right the first time, I still look like someone's beaten the crap out of me. I had to get a PPD test before starting third year, and even *that* left a huge bruise on my forearm where people were asking what had happened. I ended up wearing long sleeves for the next two weeks. 😛

 

[GWD]

The next day:

 

[GWD]

Perfect timing on this thread!

I had blood drawn yesterday and it was just a mess (no pun intended). The nurse stuck me, missed, and then proceeded to dig around for 5 minutes while telling me, "trust me, it's easier if I try to find it once I'm already under the skin. It would be worse for me to pull it out and try again".

Sigh. This is why I hate getting blood drawn...

yeah.. the interesting thing is.. she kept asking me "Are you in pain?" And I, swelling up with machismo kept saying "No.. no.. it's fine."

Finally, after about the fifth time she asked me that, I responded pretty sarcastically "Well.. you are digging around in my arm with an 18 guage needle!"

It's been my personal experience when I phlebotomize, that all the digging in the world doesn't really help. You either get it on the stick, or you don't get it. Next time something like this happens, I'm gonna tell them not to dig around and just pull it out and re-poke.

 

[LuckyMiner]

🙂

 

[GWD]

LuckyMiner: In case I didn't make it clear... I SUCK AT PHLEBOTOMY! It's very hard.

I continue to hope that with more and more practice I will become good, but at this point I'm becoming convinced it is just one of those intangible gifts. It does boggle my mind although... some people are VERY GOOD at it.

It has now been 15 days since that incident, and I still have a large, visible bruise. And I don't bruise easily/heal slowly either.

I got messed up.

As far as your anecdote about your clinic's policy goes... I would remind you of the central axiom of the Hippocratic Oath: "Do no harm."

I would suggest that by encouraging their phlebotomists to "dig" in the interest of saving the time and money to call a med tech is HIGHLY unethical. Big medicine is as much a business as it is a practice, so unfortunately I guess you're gonna see that though.

One cool thing, our MD/PhD fellow has actually donated blood so many times that she actually has a little pit-shaped scar/entry portal in her fossa that serves as a guide hole for anytime she needs to be tapped 🙂

Here is Day 5 P.O.D.

Here is today, Day 16 P.O.D.

 

[LuckyMiner]

🙂

 

[PBTintraining]

I am going to school for Phlebotomy right now it is a tough skill to grasp either you "have it" or you don't. Bruises from people who do not know what they are doing is the best!