My First ABG

I DID MY FIRST ABG TODAY!

Arterial Blood Gas is a procedure where arterial blood is drawn for electrolytes and dissolved gases analysis.In most cases, ABGs are drawn from the Radial artery located in the wrist.

First thing we do is we make sure that while we take blood from one artery, another artery is sufficient to deliver blood to the organ / limb downstream of the said arteries. Second thing we do is prepare our equipment. Lastly, the wrist is punctured and roughly 1-2 mL of arterial blood is drawn into a syringe. Now, in order to be certified for ABG Procurement in St. Joseph's, a Student RT must successfully obtain 10 ABG samples under supervision of a Registered RT.

So umm.....we practice this alot in school b/c apparently it's one of those skills that RTs are supposed to be better at...at school, we use life-sized rubber arms with actual "blood vessels" inside and we hang an IV bag filled with red liquid and used a hand-pump to simulate bloodflow. During the simulations we can also feel for a pulse so we would know where to stab. In today's case though, I found the pulse, prepared the patient, prepared the equipment, and was so ready to stab....but when I was actually supposed to stab, I found it really hard b/c the patient was already anticipating the pain and I could hear him breathing more. So when I finally stabbed his wrist, I didn't get any blood and yet I heard him being in pain =( I tried again with a brand new needle and ensured that all the bleeding has stopped, but yet I did not get blood again. My preceptor finally stepped in and did one more puncture, she finally got some blood and sent it down to the lab immediately.

Reflections for today: stabbing someone for an ABG is A LOT harder than simulation, but I will get used to it....and I will get certified!!