Nnbook drawing blood from picc line nursing

Although the safest and most accurate way to draw blood for lab work is via peripheral veins, you may need to draw blood through a central venous catheter cvc if the patients peripheral veins are no longer accessible. The patient let me know that the nurses the last few days have not gotten a return, so lab has been drawing his blood the last few days. Central venous catheters picc, short term, tunneled, i. It is a silicone or polyurethane long hollow tube that is inserted into a peripheral vein in the arm or in the upper arm using an ultrasound guide. A central venous access device inserted into a peripheral vein whose tip dwells in the superior vena cava and is used in acute care, long term care or home care. Does it pose a threat to the integrity of the picc. Central line insertion and how to draw blood from new to icu. The other day i flushed with 10 ccs of ns, then wasted 10, then drew blood. Is it appropriate to draw blood for lab work from picc lines. Picc or peripherally inserted central catheter is used for intravenous access in the medium to longterm.

Draw up 10 cc normal saline in syringe and set aside 0. Bear in mind that when you do so, you increase the risk of cvcrelated complications, such as occlusion and infection. When drawing a blood sample from a central line, be sure to use good hand hygiene to avoid causing a central line associated bloodstream infection clabsi. Policy and procedure flushing and or blood withdrawal. This morning i was supposed to draw blood from a picc line for labs. But the lab called to say that the results looked wrong extremely low hemoglobin level and that the blood probably had saline in it. Whats the proper way to draw blood from a picc line. The hospital where i work has no policy on this topic and i learned in nursing school that drawing blood from a picc line was not appropriate because of the increased risk of developing blood clots.