No Good Deed Goes Unpunished!

The following is a report I had to write on Wednesday. Why you ask?  Because a  student nurse had no clue on how a hospital actually works. It was a crappy day at work. I needed to share this story with you all so I can move on to the next entry.




To whom it may concern,


On March 9th 2011, at approximately, 9:30am, until approximately 10:00am, I was in patient XXXXXXX’s room trying to draw blood.

This patient had refused a draw earlier in the day.

I entered the room with a knock on the door, followed by a, greeting…”Hi, it’s Ann from the lab, you doctor ordered some blood tests for you, do you mind if I take your blood”. XXXXX’s response was, “Fuck you bitch…I hate you all…all of you women are awful”. I said, “OK, you know that it is important to get your blood so your doctor can know what is happening in your body”. XXXXX, responded with, “Fuck you”!

I continued to try and reason with the patient. I asked if I could just take a look at her arm, and that I would not draw unless I felt comfortable with the vein. The patient continued to be verbally abusive, and combative.

The patient was sitting in a chair next to the bed. I was sitting on the chair stool/foot rest to her left side. When I realized the patient was VERY combative, I leaned over to push the nurse call button, which was on the side of the bed. When I went to push the button, the patient…Was yelling at me” Don’t call the nurse”!!! The patient also hit me, and bit my right shoulder.

A nurse that was not the patient’s nurse walked by to see what was going on. I explained that I needed help to draw the patient. The nurse told me that she was not that patients nurse, but she would find her for me.

The patient’s nurse did come in with in about 2 mins. The nurse tried to reason with the patient, just as I had. The patient told the nurse that her right arm could not be drawn, (even though there was no band to indicate that the arm could not be drawn from). While the nurse was there, I tried to explain once again to the patient, that we needed to get the blood to help her get better. In front of the nurse the patient, continued to swear at me.



I attempted to put the tourniquet on the patient’s left arm, the patient fought me and stated, she did not want a draw on the bend of her arm.(I assumed she meant the AC, Basillic, or Cephalic, areas).

The patient then pointed to a place in her wrist, where there was no vein. She told me I had to draw it from there. Both the nurse and I tried to explain that it was not possible to draw blood there.

There was a vein on her medial wrist that I could draw from, but the patient’s watch and ID band made it difficult. I and the nurse tried to get the patient to remove her watch so that I could draw her.

XXXXXX, then again became verbally abusive to myself, and her nurse. The nurse asked XXXXXX if she could hold her watch, or if we could put it on the other wrist. XXXXXX said, “NO! it was her dead brother’s watch and it was not being taken off”!!!!

I then tried to slide the watch up to access the vein. XXXXX, then hit me again with her free hand. The nurse then held her free hand, so I could try and draw the blood. XXXXXX then tried to bite the nurse.

I asked the nurse if there was anyone else that could help. She said no, the other nurses were busy. I then asked if there was a student available.

Moments later a nursing student came into the room. I instructed her on how to hold the patient’s arm. I placed one of the student nurses hands on the left bicep of the patient, and her other hand on the patient’s wrist. I asked the student nurse to hold the arm still. I also told the student nurse that her grip must be firm.

I did get blood from the patient’s arm, but lost connection because the student nurse did not hold the arm firm. I attempted a second time, and was successful again, but the patient pulled away.


I did say to the patient at that point, “You really need to stop behaving like a baby”.

The patient continued to be verbally abusive. I released the tourniquet, and gave myself a time out. I walked out of the room. I also spoke briefly to the nurse that I had initially spoken with that was not the patient’s nurse. She said, she understood, and that she was a difficult patient. After approximately 90 seconds, I returned to the room. I spoke to the patient sternly. I explained that her behavior was not acceptable. I asked her one last time if she was going to allow me to draw her blood.

At this point I was alone with the patient. The patient then said, “Ok fucking do it already”.

I drew the patient in the wrist. The patient was more docile at that point. All tubes were drawn.

I found out when I got back to the lab, that the same patient was so abusive to another Phlebotomist, that she was shaken for 2 hours after her attempt of drawing XXXXx’s blood.