Relationship of Research to Practice Nursing

Nursing: Relationship of Research to Practice

Nurses are involved in several daily practices, among which drawing blood samples from patients is one of the crucial ones. If these samples are not taken accurately, the site from where the sample was taken initially might turn blue; the patient might have to go over the sample-taking process again as the clinical results might not be true, or the patient even could get an infection.

Research narrates that best practices for phlebotomy require planning, making the patient aware of the process, selecting the site and vein appropriately, using sterilized equipment, and washing hands before the entire act (World Health Organization, 2010). Also, it is found challenging to draw blood samples from children since extra attention and special care need to be taken to pose less to no harm to pediatric patients (Hjelmgren et al., 2022). 70% of the errors occur while drawing blood samples from children in the pre-analytical stages, which is the first out of three phases of the said process (pre-analytical, analytical, and post-analytical) (Hjelmgren et al., 2022). Nurses become frustrated when they have to take samples again or when the results are unsatisfactory since the pediatric ward is the most crucial in handling the patients.

The selected practice happens in the real clinical setting, and children are sometimes difficult to alleviate when they see needles. They have to be calmed down by their parents or the nurses so that their excessive movement does not cause a problem drawing blood samples from their bodies. Further, getting the site area blue due to the child’s excessive movements could cause concern for the nurses, although it might not be her mistake. Parents still blame the nurses, whereas the actual case is the difficult dealing process of children who are not well. Certainly, nurses become frustrated as there are high chances that errors could occur in the pre-analytical stage where taking the right amount of sample with the right needle size from the rightly targeted site location is pivotal for precise blood sample results.

I have used the best practice defined by WHO for drawing blood samples; however, I have now noticed that research also corroborates what I have experienced taking blood samples among child patients.