• Phlebotomists use safety protocols when drawing blood.drawing blood image by Pix by Marti from Fotolia.com
  
  Phlebotomy emergency protocols are required in all clinical practices. Phlebotomy is licensed practice of drawing blood from individuals. Clinical laboratory assistants and nurse practitioners are traditionally skilled as phlebotomists. Emergency procedures include precautionary measures and accessing uncommon veins under time constraints. Many practices also maintain emergency request procedures between clinical departments and blood banks.
  
  

Precautionary Measures

• Phlebotomists must take precautionary measures as preliminary emergency procedures. Dealing with potential contact of a patient's blood is the main precaution. Patients showing distress or agitation pose a greater risk to workers. Phlebotomists should wear gloves at all times and even wear a gown and use face and eye protection to avoid splatter contamination. Needles should never sit uncapped under any conditions (they should always be recapped), and workers must avoid placing catheters back into old sheaths or allowing needles to fall to the floor.
  
  

Peripheral Lines

• Phlebotomists may be required to establish peripheral intravenous lines in emergency situations. In trauma patients, according to the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Ottawa, if preferred veins in the forearm are inaccessible, clinicians should directly establish a peripheral line to a superficial vein in an upper limb. These veins will hold intravenous lines and are usually simple to catheterize. Veins in the foot or lower leg can also be used if the veins of a trauma patient are inaccessible elsewhere.
  
  

Emergency Requests

• According to the University of Connecticut Health Center, blood banks may provide uncross-matched (Type O) red blood cell units in life-threatening predicaments. A nurse can complete an emergency blood request form once the licensed physician declares the blood necessary. A courier should then be dispatched by the clinic to retrieve the units. Multiple units will be handed over as needed and any incompatibility between patients and blood must be reported immediately.