Answer the following situations.

USE RED FONT COLOR AND UNDERLINE YOUR ANSWERS.

Deadline: September 14 (Monday)

1. A patient enters the outpatient drawing station, properly identifies herself, and
states that she had a mastectomy 3 months ago. She holds her left arm out for the
phlebotomist.

a. What should the phlebotomist ask the patient?

Since thepatient were able to state her recent procedure, we the
phlebosomist should ask on which side she did have the mastectomy
b. If blood is drawn from the wrong arm, state two possible dangers to the patient.
Failure to identify the side of mastectomy can bring harm to the patient and
once the blood drawn from the wrong arm, the patient may be at risk in developing
lymphedema and this applying the tourniquet may increase the risk.

c. If blood is drawn from the wrong arm, state two possible effects on laboratory
tests.
Since the patient had undergo the mastectomy 3 months ago which is not
only remove the affected breast but also remove the lymph nodes, the removal of
lymph node may interfere with the blood flow of the lymph fluid, increase level of
lymphocytes and contamination of specimen due to waste products that contained
in lymph fluid.

2. A pediatric patient was requested by his physician with CBC and Platelet count.
However, he is very unruly, declares that he is afraid of needles, cries a lot and
seems to be very agitated. As a phlebotomist, what should you do if this situation
arises? Explain your answer.

In pediatric patient, the phlebotomist must have interpersonal skills to gain

the trust of the young patients and the parents as well their cooperation. The
techniques for dealing with pediatric patient varies to their age and we can ask for
the parent’s assistance to provide a distraction and calming technique. In some case,
for the young age they provide a stuffed toys to serve as a distraction or for the
older children , being honest helps or show them the demonstration.

3. The phlebotomist has a requisition to collect two serology tests and a prothrombin
time. No blood is obtained from the left antecubital area. The phlebotomist then
moves to the right antecubital area and obtains a full red stopper tube, but cannot
fill the light blue stopper tube. What should the phlebotomist do next?
 Based on this situation, the phlebotomist used the Evacuated tube system to
obtain the blood. The partially filled tube may caused by the improper handling and
storage this includes the checking of expiration dates, in this case the phlebotomist
can use new light blue tap collection tube. Another possible procedure is to slowly
insert the needle to the vein if the needle is partially in the lumen of the vein or pull
back the needle that may have gone out to the vein. If the following techniques was
unsuccessful request an another phlebotomist to collect the specimen.

4. You are having difficulty in collecting blood from an ICU patient.

a. Given the chance that you know how to perform arterial puncture, will you do it?

As Phlebotomist, we should be aware that Arterial puncture can be only done by

certified medical professionals such as Physician, Nurses, Medical Laboratory Scientist and
senior phlebotomist. In this case, we should inform the physician or seniors that we will
conduct an arterial puncture to the patient and before we proceed to the arterial puncture
we should conduct the modified Allen’s test.

b. What do you think are the consequences of this procedure?

The arterial puncture is more dangerous than the venipuncture this could lead to
some complications such as hemorrhage formation, arteriospasm, vasovagal reaction,
thrombosis, hemorrhage, infection, and nerve damage.

5. In your own opinion, do you agree that other health professionals aside from medical
technologists shall be given the chance to perform phlebotomy? Why? Why not?

The Medical Laboratory Scientist other countries were thw one that runs the test
not the who collect blood specimens, it was the task of the phlebotomist. For me,
regardless of what medical health profession as long as the person were certified to do
the phlebotomy and have the qualities of the phlebotomist. They can do the specimen
collection because not all the time there are available medical laboratory scientist in the
facility or laboratory that can do the collection especially when there are many test that
should be done. The advantage that the medical laboratory scientist in specimen
collection they can ensure that the specimen that they’re collecting is good and should
not be rejected.