Venipuncture class

Taking blood is something that I have always been a bit scared of. Something about pushing that needle into the skin has always made me a bit panicky. Whenever I've had blood taken for testing I've never been able to watch it happen and still wasn't able to in class. Pushing the needle in wasn't as bad as I was expecting. The tricky part was stabilizing the barrel and inserting the tube into the barrel to collect blood without letting the needle go in deeper and through the vein or accidentally pulling it out. By the end of class I successfully filled four containers in a series of two punctures. We also tested blood sugar levels and hemoglobin by quickly pricking each others fingers will small sterile dart like tools. It was an emotional day for all of us though some of us held it together better then others.