Venipuncture II of III Levitt Safety 20090623153210 1

[2duckshot]

you go by test importance if the patient is a hard stick ie an anemic geriatric or pediatric patient. otherwise its order of draw.

is the vein smaller or just less visible, the ante cubital is always bigger but often less visible

[icemom09]

I have a dumb question that i always wondered. Why don't you do the big vein? Curious, because I have some big veins, but they always do a small vein.

[ronkadam]

Actually, I believe that the we are supposed to follow order of draw, not test importance.

[876pinky]

@ronkadam yes, i agree with you; we are suppose to follow the order of the draw to prevent contamination of the needle from the anticoagulant in the tube, which could throw off the results of the test!!!