It's hard to find good help; phlebotomist edition
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My wife went to Labcorp this morning to get her blood drawn. Came out with three bandages on her arms, near tears, with instruction from the labcorp experts to come back some other time. "Whenever, just walk in. Maybe we'll be able to get your blood then." I guess we have to randomly come on a day a halfway experienced phlebotomist is on duty.
@Horace I know someone who used to donate blood ALL the time. Had a bad experience with a needle one time. She's developed a real phobia of needles.
Hopefully Mrs. Horace's experience is a one-of, attributable to an inexperienced tech.
Whenever I have bloodwork done, or an IV inserted, I actually watch to see if the tech knows what s/he's doing. They're always amazed that I watch. Doesn't hurt any less if I don't watch.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@Horace I know someone who used to donate blood ALL the time. Had a bad experience with a needle one time. She's developed a real phobia of needles.
Hopefully Mrs. Horace's experience is a one-of, attributable to an inexperienced tech.
Whenever I have bloodwork done, or an IV inserted, I actually watch to see if the tech knows what s/he's doing. They're always amazed that I watch. Doesn't hurt any less if I don't watch.
@George-K said in It's hard to find good help; phlebotomist edition:
@Horace I know someone who used to donate blood ALL the time. Had a bad experience with a needle one time. She's developed a real phobia of needles.
Hopefully Mrs. Horace's experience is a one-of, attributable to an inexperienced tech.
I hope so. I'm not sure if I'll be able to convince her to go back. In this case, two techs failed. The first failed twice, then they asked someone else to try, who also failed. I think their policy is to stop trying at some point. Their next policy is apparently to shrug and ask the patient to come back any time for another go.
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I'm guessing it's a 2+1 policy. Two sticks for the first phlebe, one stick for the second (usually more experienced).
Is the wife a hard stick? Usually folks that are, can tell you what works. But some phlebes have so much ego, a hard stick is like waving a red flag at a bull.
Next time you go in, explain what happened and make sure you ask for the best and most experienced person they have. 23g butterfly and syringe, if possible.
Alternatively, put her on a plane and send her to Chicago. I'll bet you $100 straight up, that Dr. K is very, very good with a needle.
“Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”
Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ "due process". — Buck Sexton
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I'm guessing it's a 2+1 policy. Two sticks for the first phlebe, one stick for the second (usually more experienced).
Is the wife a hard stick? Usually folks that are, can tell you what works. But some phlebes have so much ego, a hard stick is like waving a red flag at a bull.
Next time you go in, explain what happened and make sure you ask for the best and most experienced person they have. 23g butterfly and syringe, if possible.
Alternatively, put her on a plane and send her to Chicago. I'll bet you $100 straight up, that Dr. K is very, very good with a needle.
@Jolly said in It's hard to find good help; phlebotomist edition:
Link to videoDr. K is very, very good with a needle.
I've done hundreds and hundreds of these.
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@Horace I know someone who used to donate blood ALL the time. Had a bad experience with a needle one time. She's developed a real phobia of needles.
Hopefully Mrs. Horace's experience is a one-of, attributable to an inexperienced tech.
Whenever I have bloodwork done, or an IV inserted, I actually watch to see if the tech knows what s/he's doing. They're always amazed that I watch. Doesn't hurt any less if I don't watch.
@George-K said in It's hard to find good help; phlebotomist edition:
@Horace I know someone who used to donate blood ALL the time. Had a bad experience with a needle one time. She's developed a real phobia of needles.
Hopefully Mrs. Horace's experience is a one-of, attributable to an inexperienced tech.
Whenever I have bloodwork done, or an IV inserted, I actually watch to see if the tech knows what s/he's doing. They're always amazed that I watch. Doesn't hurt any less if I don't watch.
I do too, and I usually tell them where to go if they look uncertain. It doesn't bother me at all. I watch the tubes fill too.
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@George-K said in It's hard to find good help; phlebotomist edition:
@Horace I know someone who used to donate blood ALL the time. Had a bad experience with a needle one time. She's developed a real phobia of needles.
Hopefully Mrs. Horace's experience is a one-of, attributable to an inexperienced tech.
Whenever I have bloodwork done, or an IV inserted, I actually watch to see if the tech knows what s/he's doing. They're always amazed that I watch. Doesn't hurt any less if I don't watch.
I do too, and I usually tell them where to go if they look uncertain. It doesn't bother me at all. I watch the tubes fill too.
@Mik said in It's hard to find good help; phlebotomist edition:
@George-K said in It's hard to find good help; phlebotomist edition:
@Horace I know someone who used to donate blood ALL the time. Had a bad experience with a needle one time. She's developed a real phobia of needles.
Hopefully Mrs. Horace's experience is a one-of, attributable to an inexperienced tech.
Whenever I have bloodwork done, or an IV inserted, I actually watch to see if the tech knows what s/he's doing. They're always amazed that I watch. Doesn't hurt any less if I don't watch.
I do too, and I usually tell them where to go if they look uncertain. It doesn't bother me at all.
Three guesses and the first two don't count on where you tell them to go...
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I'm guessing it's a 2+1 policy. Two sticks for the first phlebe, one stick for the second (usually more experienced).
Is the wife a hard stick? Usually folks that are, can tell you what works. But some phlebes have so much ego, a hard stick is like waving a red flag at a bull.
Next time you go in, explain what happened and make sure you ask for the best and most experienced person they have. 23g butterfly and syringe, if possible.
Alternatively, put her on a plane and send her to Chicago. I'll bet you $100 straight up, that Dr. K is very, very good with a needle.
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The "art" of venipuncture and venous cannulation has undergone an amazing transformation since I retired.
"Back in the day," when you wanted to stick the internal jugular vein, you relied on landmarks (muscles and bony structures) to tell you where the vein should be. Of course, people being people, they didn't read the anatomy books, and things were different.
In retrospect, I was probably about 95% successful with an IJ stick.
I was pretty good with IVs as well, and as @Mik said, epidurals. My personal record for an epidural was 400 lb.
But, it's all different now.
To stick an IJ without using ultrasound is probably outside the standard of care now - "What, you stuck a needle in the neck, blindly, when you had the tech to actually see the vein? What were you thinking, doctor?"
All kinds of gizmos to visualize veins for IV placement as well as venipuncture.
Oh, brave new world!
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I'm guessing it's a 2+1 policy. Two sticks for the first phlebe, one stick for the second (usually more experienced).
Is the wife a hard stick? Usually folks that are, can tell you what works. But some phlebes have so much ego, a hard stick is like waving a red flag at a bull.
Next time you go in, explain what happened and make sure you ask for the best and most experienced person they have. 23g butterfly and syringe, if possible.
Alternatively, put her on a plane and send her to Chicago. I'll bet you $100 straight up, that Dr. K is very, very good with a needle.
@Jolly said in It's hard to find good help; phlebotomist edition:
Dr. K is very, very good with a needle.
By the way (bragging here), I was curious as to how fast I could do some things, back in the day.
Bring patient into operating room, place on table. Start timer.
- Insert 16g IV
- Insert another 16g IV
- Insert left radial arterial line
- Induce anesthesia, intubate patient.
- Insert right internal jugular IV
- Pass catheter through #5 into heart, position it in the pulmonary artery (no one does that any more, btw)
My best time? 19 minutes from table to "OK, start prepping,"
ETA: I had one of my partners watch, and he was impressed.
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I'm guessing it's a 2+1 policy. Two sticks for the first phlebe, one stick for the second (usually more experienced).
Is the wife a hard stick? Usually folks that are, can tell you what works. But some phlebes have so much ego, a hard stick is like waving a red flag at a bull.
Next time you go in, explain what happened and make sure you ask for the best and most experienced person they have. 23g butterfly and syringe, if possible.
Alternatively, put her on a plane and send her to Chicago. I'll bet you $100 straight up, that Dr. K is very, very good with a needle.
@Jolly said in It's hard to find good help; phlebotomist edition:
I'm guessing it's a 2+1 policy. Two sticks for the first phlebe, one stick for the second (usually more experienced).
Is the wife a hard stick? Usually folks that are, can tell you what works. But some phlebes have so much ego, a hard stick is like waving a red flag at a bull.
She is, but this is the first time she's experienced a total failure. Her veins are small, but not smaller than a child's, presumably. I figured these people would have that covered. She called her doctor, and the doc told her what I told her - that Labcorp has one job, they do this hundreds of times a day for hundreds of people, and it's ridiculous that they failed. The doc asked her to come back to her office next week. I guess she has some alternative in mind.
