As a cancer survivor whose been poked more times than I care to remember - the patient will always feel something. With that said though, the difference between a nursing student and a trained and experienced phlebotomist is night and day. One pokes 4-5 times missing the vein and digging around. The other is so gentle and precise you barely even feel it. Love me a good phlebotomist!
I actually had a nurse explain to me during a blood draw that the pain people usually feel is from the alcohol swab that they do before entering with the needle. She showed me by waiting a good bit after the swab (I assume to let it evaporate a lot) and then putting the needle in and to my surprise it was one of the only times I didn't feel pain.
Same way with vaccinations. I found a guy at Walmart who would actually swab it and then blow on it or use paper to fan it before giving me the shot. Practically painless. So all the other people I guess just don’t care, which really really sucks.
He shouldn’t blow on it! that’s just asking to decontaminate what was once a relatively clean surface, even fanning is against best practice. The alcohol evaporates within 30 seconds due to latent body heat.
Noted. Main point was that this is probably part of training that one can wait until the alcohol dries and most medical people don’t, which is sadistic.
I'd say they don't know. That's not something they teach in nursing school or where I originally learned, Army Medic training. They glance over letting it dry to kill the most microorganisms. Nothing mentioned about preventing pain.
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u/Heffe3737 Jun 10 '25
As a cancer survivor whose been poked more times than I care to remember - the patient will always feel something. With that said though, the difference between a nursing student and a trained and experienced phlebotomist is night and day. One pokes 4-5 times missing the vein and digging around. The other is so gentle and precise you barely even feel it. Love me a good phlebotomist!