Venipuncture is the collection of blood from a vein. The person having the responsibility for the performance of the venipuncture may be a phlebotomist who is a part of the laboratory staff, or he/she may be another health care professional that has been trained to perform this duty.

This course focuses on the routine venipuncture procedure including the tools that are available, steps in the procedure, recommendations for venipuncture site choices as well as sites to avoid, pre-analytic errors, and safety issues.

Intended Audience: This program is designed as an educational and training tool for laboratory personnel, phlebotomists, and other healthcare personnel who perform venipunctures. This course is also appropriate for clinical laboratory science and phlebotomy students. 

Learning Objectives

• Identify and describe equipment used for routine venipuncture.
• Assess and select suitable sites used for venipuncture as well as locations to avoid.
• Describe and utilize the required steps to perform routine venipuncture.
• Understand how pre-analytic and hidden errors affect the quality of a specimen.
• Describe actions that ensure safety during performance of a venipuncture.

This course has been approved for P.A.C.E.® credit. There are no prerequisites for this course.