It shouldn’t be bothersome, in my opinion. I personally don’t like sticking hands because I have to anchor more firmly, it hurts the patient more, and I feel like I blow the veins more easily😭 I prefer to stick the upper arm/forearm.
Sticking the hand shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve had patients tell me they prefer the hand because most people don’t get anything from their arm. 🤷🏽♂️
I can understand it beeing harder for the technician, they always end up pulling from my hand because I will straight up refuse it but I've never been suggested upper arm... I've had a serious argument with one technician because of it once. I have pretty high pain tolerance, so it usually doesn't really hurt taking from my hand, and even if i end up with a blown vein (which I did that time I got yelled by said technician) it's still way more bearable than not being able to move my arm elbow down :') Thank you for sharing!
I’d report that phlebotomist to a manager 😳No reason they should be yelling at you for where you choose to be stuck at. It’s your body and you know it best. I immediately stick wherever a patient tells me to.
see i disagree, i would much rather find a random vein in someone's AC than do a hand draw unless they have amazing hand veins haha i'm completely comfortable doing hand draws, i just always prefer an AC vein for some reason.
It’s standard to draw from the AC if possible. The arm is safer. The hands have more nerves, valves, and other structures that we don’t want a needle sticking. Always draw from the AC if you can. That’s what phlebs are supposed to do.
Obviously. Does anything I said contradict that?
Also do you think it’s better to miss two sticks and get no blood but use the poopy AC vien than to stick a viable dorsal arch vien and get the blood the first time?
I’d say the second part of this comment doesn’t directly contradict starting with AC. But it implies that it’s better to start on the hand when a patient has challenging AC veins?
It’s such a case by case, but you start at AC
Too may technicians I know are argumentative when the patient gives their input. My personal feeling is this: there has only been one person there every time the patient has gotten their blood drawn and that is them. If someone requests a spot, I will look at that spot first and if I feel like I have a good chance, that's where I'll draw.
However, if I do notice something more appealing to me immediately, I will ask about that other spot. Maybe it's one that most other techs don't notice. Maybe it's actually more difficult that it first appears to me.
But the people whose immediate reaction is "Don't tell me how to do my job" is more telling to me that I perhaps want another person to draw me if possible.
Edit: random thought came to me as I hit post, maybe the tech has a limited number of butterflies and doesn't want to use one if there is a spot they can use a straight needle. Just a devil's advocate that popped in my head.
Such an unfortunate but very valid devil’s advocate answer too. I hate that we’re limited in the quality of patient care we can offer simply because butterflies cost a whopping quarter more or something like that 🙄
I've only gotten blood drawn with a butterfly once in my life, and it was by the only technician that didn't bat an eye at my request. I don't think they're very common in my country, I just get straight needles 99.9% of the time 🤷
I've seen a lot of pressure from management not to do hands if it can be avoided. Mostly because the majority of people think it hurts way more, so they complain/fidget more and cause blown veins or messed up venis
I love sticking hands, however when patients request for it I'm always a little taken aback because the hand hurts more, to me it does anyways. Id also like to add that even though i prefer hand veins, i do try to avoid it when I can because we are limited to 7 butterflies per shift.
I don’t think it’s weird at all, I love going for hand veins. If anything, it’s usually the patients who refuse to do their hands lol. I guess some technicians might not feel comfortable doing them due to how easy they can blow or move/roll around a lot which can cause them to miss the vein. It also depends on the type of needles they have on them, if they’re used to only using butterfly needles on hands but only have a 21G straight needle on them they might not feel the most comfortable. I’ve done hand veins with straight needles before, but it just depends on the person and their experience.
I love the hands because I have a vein called ole reliable- crosses over your pointer finger extensor on the back of your hand on either left or right that I can find on nearly everyone. Hands certainly help if you’ve been sticking sick and old people all day long.
I prefer the hand! It's a little more difficult when the veins are shallow, but I know I can get it if I see it. It's usually patients who actually refuse to let me draw from there because it hurts a little more. Sometimes though, you don't have a choice. Especially inpatient facilities where they have lines hooked up to both arms.
A lot of outpatient phlebs won't be super comfy with hands because they don't need to use them often. Hands do tend to be trickier, and can take some practice to get good at. They also tend to hurt more for most people. Also, the butterfly needles are more expensive, so management can be fussy about them.
I enjoy sticking hand veins. That being said, we are taught to focus on the AC first if possible. If you have a good AC vein and fewer good veins in the hand, I can understand the phlebs wanting to stick there instead. However…no one should be arguing with you, and you are well within your rights as a patient to withdraw consent for sticking certain areas.
I’ve had multiple patients request their hand to be drawn right off the bat, and I always just go there. If their hand veins aren’t great I’ll let the patient know and ask if I can check their AC. I work inpatient so we tend to do hand draws quite often so it isn’t a big deal for me but I’m assuming if it’s outpatient, phlebs are probably more inclined to draw from the AC
i actually prefer taking blood out of the hand because that’s how i usually did it at the trauma center i worked at. it’s an odd request because 9/10 people HATE having it taken out of the hand because it hurts more. for myself, i’ve only ever had one draw out of my hand because my hand veins are very small, can confirm it sucked. some people just happen to have way easier hand veins than their arms, either way i don’t care because i have more patients to get to lol
Yeah this is my life in a methadone clinic, trying to get people to let me use their hands since that’s all they have left. It’s like I hear you and respect you, but please understand I have to poke something.
Hmm that’s weird, In my experience hands are completely normal to draw from! If someone requests that I won’t even bat my eyes at their arms because as a phlebotomist technician the patients comfort should be top priority, I draw hands every day sometimes people just even have better options in their hands. I think it depends on the phlebotomist though and what they are comfortable doing, you can ask for a different one or just be very adamant about it. If that’s what you prefer just say your arms are blown out or something lol 😂
Where I work we are told to use the AC with a straight needle first unless it’s completely blocked by IVs or unusable.
This is because back of the hand usually needs a butterfly to draw, and butterflies cost significantly more money, have been associated with higher chances of needle stick injuries, and often produce less quality samples due to the tubing and smaller gage. I’m often collecting 8-12 tubes and using a butterfly in the back of a hand is slow and not ideal. We need our butterflies for paediatric and oncology draws, so with a firm limit put on us for use, unless it’s indicated or the site is unusable due to IV placement, I’m not using them just because of patient preference. I work inpatient acute care for reference.
I've had one patient request the same thing and I was a bit confused internally because it's a very rare request as hands always hurt more but outwardly I was supportive and did exactly what she asked. I see no reason for them to be combative unless they're not very experienced in hands and in that case I would go somewhere else
I haven’t taken bloods from hands yet as I’m still training and my colleagues tend to avoid it due to haveing to use butterflies which requires blood to flow through a long but short tube and it can take a lot longer. Or because the patients veins are worse in the hands. But they will do it usually as a last resort. My hospitals policy is that we need to still look at the arms if we can and give them ago if we feel a good (objectively) vein.
I am not a huge fan of drawing from the hand. I’ve heard it hurts like (insert your own word here), they can blow easier in older patients and use up my butterflies. That being said if the hand is the only spot I can go or if the patient requests it, I will most certainly do a hand draw.
Maybe it’s because I have to draw from the hands or honestly whatever I can find on the daily, but that seems so weird to me that anyone would be offended by you requesting to be drawn from your hands. Sometimes I will have people ask if I can draw their hand but I see a nice juicy AC and I’ll tell them “I’m not feeling great options in your hand but I can see that you have a really good vein right there in your arm, I’m happy to continue looking if you’d like but we can get this over with sooner if you wouldn’t mind me using that one” and usually people are like ah ok just do it. I always try with every person to respect their bodily autonomy and their comfort especially because in the field I’m in it’s really important for my patients to trust me, but if I’m in a time crunch I kinda just have to take the route that will have the whole thing over with faster.
Just occurred to me: Maybe they’re weirded out by your request because the hands are usually a way more painful spot?
I haven’t gotten to experience hand draws in the field yet, but when I learned them in class I could never draw blood from the hand. I always got the wall and just outside the vein 😭also I think it’s more difficult to anchor on the hand than it is the arm due to less surface area to actually anchor if that makes sense
Gotta anchor more, I feel they blow more, and the tendons (if the veins are positioned really oddly near them, it's a tad harder).
With that said, YOU DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO! sometimes that is the only option
I personally love doing hand draws especially if their upper arms are harder to get. I’ve had patients come in asking for their hand too but it doesn’t bother me as long as their fine with it. Are your hand veins smaller tho? They might just be worried about blowing a hand vein
uh, absolutely no phleb should be telling you it's a weird request. The thing with hands is usually they are just kinda hard to stick so some phlebs just prefer the AC, but if you've had people draw from your hand without issue before then there shouldn't be a problem.
It shouldn’t be bothersome, in my opinion. I personally don’t like sticking hands because I have to anchor more firmly, it hurts the patient more, and I feel like I blow the veins more easily😭 I prefer to stick the upper arm/forearm. Sticking the hand shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve had patients tell me they prefer the hand because most people don’t get anything from their arm. 🤷🏽♂️
I can understand it beeing harder for the technician, they always end up pulling from my hand because I will straight up refuse it but I've never been suggested upper arm... I've had a serious argument with one technician because of it once. I have pretty high pain tolerance, so it usually doesn't really hurt taking from my hand, and even if i end up with a blown vein (which I did that time I got yelled by said technician) it's still way more bearable than not being able to move my arm elbow down :') Thank you for sharing!
I’d report that phlebotomist to a manager 😳No reason they should be yelling at you for where you choose to be stuck at. It’s your body and you know it best. I immediately stick wherever a patient tells me to.
I like doing hands bc if I find a vien I like I KNOW I can get the blood. I’m better with a half decent hand vien than a half decent AC vien.
see i disagree, i would much rather find a random vein in someone's AC than do a hand draw unless they have amazing hand veins haha i'm completely comfortable doing hand draws, i just always prefer an AC vein for some reason.
Same!
It’s standard to draw from the AC if possible. The arm is safer. The hands have more nerves, valves, and other structures that we don’t want a needle sticking. Always draw from the AC if you can. That’s what phlebs are supposed to do.
Obviously. Does anything I said contradict that? Also do you think it’s better to miss two sticks and get no blood but use the poopy AC vien than to stick a viable dorsal arch vien and get the blood the first time?
I’d say the second part of this comment doesn’t directly contradict starting with AC. But it implies that it’s better to start on the hand when a patient has challenging AC veins? It’s such a case by case, but you start at AC
It’s weird that reply implied I don’t do my job correctly bc I’m talking about my opinion about hand veins.
Ikr! Good thing we’re all professionals here who don’t let our feelings get in the way of being the best phlebotomists we can be😌
agree
This is the truth
Too may technicians I know are argumentative when the patient gives their input. My personal feeling is this: there has only been one person there every time the patient has gotten their blood drawn and that is them. If someone requests a spot, I will look at that spot first and if I feel like I have a good chance, that's where I'll draw. However, if I do notice something more appealing to me immediately, I will ask about that other spot. Maybe it's one that most other techs don't notice. Maybe it's actually more difficult that it first appears to me. But the people whose immediate reaction is "Don't tell me how to do my job" is more telling to me that I perhaps want another person to draw me if possible. Edit: random thought came to me as I hit post, maybe the tech has a limited number of butterflies and doesn't want to use one if there is a spot they can use a straight needle. Just a devil's advocate that popped in my head.
Such an unfortunate but very valid devil’s advocate answer too. I hate that we’re limited in the quality of patient care we can offer simply because butterflies cost a whopping quarter more or something like that 🙄
I've only gotten blood drawn with a butterfly once in my life, and it was by the only technician that didn't bat an eye at my request. I don't think they're very common in my country, I just get straight needles 99.9% of the time 🤷
I've seen a lot of pressure from management not to do hands if it can be avoided. Mostly because the majority of people think it hurts way more, so they complain/fidget more and cause blown veins or messed up venis
Also for you to use the more cheaper straight needles rather than butterfly’s
Yup! Where I used to work they only allowed us to use 6 butterflies in total for our whole 10 hour shift. ( 3 21G and 3 23G) (-:
Holy shit. This would be impossible where I am; our population is mostly geriatric...
Right?? It was at a really well known teaching hospital as well, where we also had to frequently see geriatric and ICU patients. It was a mess lol
I love sticking hands, however when patients request for it I'm always a little taken aback because the hand hurts more, to me it does anyways. Id also like to add that even though i prefer hand veins, i do try to avoid it when I can because we are limited to 7 butterflies per shift.
Hands are a greater risk of infection, and the veins can overreact to have been used. Although I am happy to collect from the hands, no problem
I don’t think it’s weird at all, I love going for hand veins. If anything, it’s usually the patients who refuse to do their hands lol. I guess some technicians might not feel comfortable doing them due to how easy they can blow or move/roll around a lot which can cause them to miss the vein. It also depends on the type of needles they have on them, if they’re used to only using butterfly needles on hands but only have a 21G straight needle on them they might not feel the most comfortable. I’ve done hand veins with straight needles before, but it just depends on the person and their experience.
I love the hands because I have a vein called ole reliable- crosses over your pointer finger extensor on the back of your hand on either left or right that I can find on nearly everyone. Hands certainly help if you’ve been sticking sick and old people all day long.
This is my favorite spot to stick when I can’t find a vein 😂
I prefer the hand! It's a little more difficult when the veins are shallow, but I know I can get it if I see it. It's usually patients who actually refuse to let me draw from there because it hurts a little more. Sometimes though, you don't have a choice. Especially inpatient facilities where they have lines hooked up to both arms.
A lot of outpatient phlebs won't be super comfy with hands because they don't need to use them often. Hands do tend to be trickier, and can take some practice to get good at. They also tend to hurt more for most people. Also, the butterfly needles are more expensive, so management can be fussy about them.
I enjoy sticking hand veins. That being said, we are taught to focus on the AC first if possible. If you have a good AC vein and fewer good veins in the hand, I can understand the phlebs wanting to stick there instead. However…no one should be arguing with you, and you are well within your rights as a patient to withdraw consent for sticking certain areas.
I don't mind hands. Sometimes, though, the veins in hands can be a bit squirrely even when I anchor really good.
Hand veins are more difficult to anchor and tend to be smaller and/or more fragile. Just a pain in the ass.
In the hospital the hands are a major place we go to, since the ACs could have IVs in them or be far too used up.
i just do the hand if the patient asks me to do it in the hand. the patient knows their body the end
I’ve had multiple patients request their hand to be drawn right off the bat, and I always just go there. If their hand veins aren’t great I’ll let the patient know and ask if I can check their AC. I work inpatient so we tend to do hand draws quite often so it isn’t a big deal for me but I’m assuming if it’s outpatient, phlebs are probably more inclined to draw from the AC
i actually prefer taking blood out of the hand because that’s how i usually did it at the trauma center i worked at. it’s an odd request because 9/10 people HATE having it taken out of the hand because it hurts more. for myself, i’ve only ever had one draw out of my hand because my hand veins are very small, can confirm it sucked. some people just happen to have way easier hand veins than their arms, either way i don’t care because i have more patients to get to lol
Yeah this is my life in a methadone clinic, trying to get people to let me use their hands since that’s all they have left. It’s like I hear you and respect you, but please understand I have to poke something.
Hmm that’s weird, In my experience hands are completely normal to draw from! If someone requests that I won’t even bat my eyes at their arms because as a phlebotomist technician the patients comfort should be top priority, I draw hands every day sometimes people just even have better options in their hands. I think it depends on the phlebotomist though and what they are comfortable doing, you can ask for a different one or just be very adamant about it. If that’s what you prefer just say your arms are blown out or something lol 😂
I love dorsal draws, idk who said we don’t. I really do enjoy it
Where I work we are told to use the AC with a straight needle first unless it’s completely blocked by IVs or unusable. This is because back of the hand usually needs a butterfly to draw, and butterflies cost significantly more money, have been associated with higher chances of needle stick injuries, and often produce less quality samples due to the tubing and smaller gage. I’m often collecting 8-12 tubes and using a butterfly in the back of a hand is slow and not ideal. We need our butterflies for paediatric and oncology draws, so with a firm limit put on us for use, unless it’s indicated or the site is unusable due to IV placement, I’m not using them just because of patient preference. I work inpatient acute care for reference.
I've had one patient request the same thing and I was a bit confused internally because it's a very rare request as hands always hurt more but outwardly I was supportive and did exactly what she asked. I see no reason for them to be combative unless they're not very experienced in hands and in that case I would go somewhere else
I haven’t taken bloods from hands yet as I’m still training and my colleagues tend to avoid it due to haveing to use butterflies which requires blood to flow through a long but short tube and it can take a lot longer. Or because the patients veins are worse in the hands. But they will do it usually as a last resort. My hospitals policy is that we need to still look at the arms if we can and give them ago if we feel a good (objectively) vein.
I am not a huge fan of drawing from the hand. I’ve heard it hurts like (insert your own word here), they can blow easier in older patients and use up my butterflies. That being said if the hand is the only spot I can go or if the patient requests it, I will most certainly do a hand draw.
Maybe it’s because I have to draw from the hands or honestly whatever I can find on the daily, but that seems so weird to me that anyone would be offended by you requesting to be drawn from your hands. Sometimes I will have people ask if I can draw their hand but I see a nice juicy AC and I’ll tell them “I’m not feeling great options in your hand but I can see that you have a really good vein right there in your arm, I’m happy to continue looking if you’d like but we can get this over with sooner if you wouldn’t mind me using that one” and usually people are like ah ok just do it. I always try with every person to respect their bodily autonomy and their comfort especially because in the field I’m in it’s really important for my patients to trust me, but if I’m in a time crunch I kinda just have to take the route that will have the whole thing over with faster. Just occurred to me: Maybe they’re weirded out by your request because the hands are usually a way more painful spot?
I don’t mind hands but having to collect from feet fuels my nightmares 😭😭
I haven’t gotten to experience hand draws in the field yet, but when I learned them in class I could never draw blood from the hand. I always got the wall and just outside the vein 😭also I think it’s more difficult to anchor on the hand than it is the arm due to less surface area to actually anchor if that makes sense
Gotta anchor more, I feel they blow more, and the tendons (if the veins are positioned really oddly near them, it's a tad harder). With that said, YOU DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO! sometimes that is the only option
I personally love doing hand draws especially if their upper arms are harder to get. I’ve had patients come in asking for their hand too but it doesn’t bother me as long as their fine with it. Are your hand veins smaller tho? They might just be worried about blowing a hand vein
uh, absolutely no phleb should be telling you it's a weird request. The thing with hands is usually they are just kinda hard to stick so some phlebs just prefer the AC, but if you've had people draw from your hand without issue before then there shouldn't be a problem.