Nurses' Performance Regarding Prevention of Hemolysis in Venous Blood Sampling: Suggested Nursing Guidelines

Background: Blood hemolysis is the most common and most dangerous venous blood sampling error. Nurses are in charge of putting the best performance for venous blood sampling into place to reduce blood sample hemolysis. The study aim: Explore Nurses' performance regarding Prevention of hemolysis in Venous Blood Sampling: Suggested Nursing Guidelines. Design and sample: A cross-sectional descriptive exploratory design was used. A convenient sample of 200 nurses working at medical, neurological surgical, orthopedic, and urology departments. Setting: The present study was carried out at medical, neurological surgical, orthopedic, and urology departments affiliated to Suez Canal University hospitals, in Egypt. Tools of data collection: Two tools were used: Nurses' knowledge assessment questionnaire, and nurses' practices observational checklist regarding prevention of hemolysis in venous blood sampling. Results: Regarding knowledge of the studied nurse's prevention of blood hemolysis there was 99% of studied nurses had unsatisfactory knowledge regarding the prevention of hemolysis. Also, Poor nurses' knowledge about techniques during venous blood collection, exerting strong pressure on the vein, and frequent bending and straightening of the arm during blood collection items got the lowest percentage 8% for both respectively. Regarding practice areas, 92.4% of studied nurses had unsatisfactory practices regarding the prevention of hemolysis. Also, poor practice about not leaving the tourniquet for more than 1 min, avoiding tapping the punctured site during venipuncture, and using veins with large lumens got the highest not done percentages 65.5,65,64 respectively. Also, there was a positive significant correlation between total knowledge score and total practice score with r .887 and P value <.001*Conclusion: The majority of nurses had an unsatisfactory level of knowledge regarding the prevention of blood hemolysis. The majority of nurses had an unsatisfactory level of practice regarding the prevention of hemolysis. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between nurses' knowledge and practice regarding the prevention of hemolysis. Recommendations: Educational nursing guidelines should be conducted for all nursing personnel regarding the Prevention of hemolysis in venous blood sampling as they are the key factor in preventing blood hemolysis.