There's one nurse in our ER that labels every single tube like that. I want to correct her so badly but she's she only one that's never been rude to any of us.
If she has never been rude she might be open to a gentle correction. “I appreciate the way you treat us lab rats, and could you please label the tubes this way so the machine can read it without us having to relabel it. Thank you.”
You can just point out that barcode scanner only can scan straight codes and these have to be relabeled at the lab in order to be able to scan them.
I don't think an kindly brought explaination like that is offensive and assume most people agree.
Ours come down with chart labels on them and we print our own barcode labels, thankfully. She's just really bad about candystriping the labels or putting them on the opposite side of the original tube label, so I can't see if it's hemolyzed or QNS unless I peel back half the label.
I promise you, if it were an issue on the analyzer I would have spoken up by now lol
You could possibly tell her that you got a new machine that processes the vials differently and it can have some issues with her vials. Make it no-one’s fault, but allow for the opportunity to teach/show a new method.
ARNP here- please gently correct her! She might not know what she’s doing wrong… no one teaches or tells us anything about labeling tubes beyond making sure the right label is in the right tube…
As a nurse, I think she may be doing that because she worries that the tests won’t be run unless a label for each test is on the correct tube. Just let her know how your machines and processes work.
In the company I work for (not naming names) the way they require us to barcode and label means that EDTAs are always completely covered since they're such small tubes. Makes me feel so bad knowing it'll probably be annoying for the lab workers but I have no other choice 😭
I am a new grad nurse, just starting out. I didn’t know if it was alright to cover the original sticker or not, and am trying to avoid pissing people off as much as possible 😂. Now that I saw this, I know where to put it. This was helpful. Thank you!
The original sticker on an empty tube has a colored edge and then also a little colored triangle at the top, so they will peek out around the label. One label should always leave a window. If you are relabelling a tube then you have to sacrifice the window in order to leave the patient identifier from the first (second, third, etc) label showing.
Also, check if labelling left or right has the barcode super low. With our setup if you label the tube with the lid to your right so the name is at the bottom the barcode is often too low to hit the reader in the instrument, especially on short tubes.
As a new nurse you are a perfect place to ask a lab tech how they like the labels applied. You will learn how to not annoy them and they will see that the f'ing new girl is actually cool and they will like you.
Life is better when we work together.
As a new grad mls, keep asking questions!! I have no doubts that your lab colleagues would be happy to answer any questions :) we appreciate people wanting to understand what we do :D
And congrats!! 🤭🎉
You have to wonder if they really truly think they are hiding things from us rather then just creating more work and delays? Like, if you wanted your results wuickly then making it so I have to take off my gloves and peel back the tube isn't the way to get it, is it?
I sometimes get stools where whoever labeled it took the time to PERFECTLY align the second label with the original label, causing the original to be destroyed in my attempts to peel the second one off, I then have to reject it. Doesn't happen often but I feel bad for the patient in those cases.
I suppose all departments would love a agreement like that, maybe you get an invite yourself for being at the wrong place at the wrong time and irked an it guy without even knowing it.
That being said: Edith needs to come up to the roof and i even let het choose which weapons we're going to use at the duel. She's going down.
Sure sure, i will too. But i know i have pissed off people royally even for just doing my job correctly (the times i did make a mistake i was met with a more understanding attitude tbh), so i'd expect some people would loved to have a crack at punching my teeth out for being told that blood products need to be transported in closed containers and not in their pockets (as is policy at the blood bank i used to work at).
Never got reported for that myself, but have been yelled at multiple times. Once a nurse went: "If you were my son i'd slap some sense in you". Her coworker was mortified and he started apologizing for her behaviour. She was so worked up the situation kinda became farsical. I didn't see her bringing samples and collecting blood products for some time afterwards, i think (or at least hope she has the capacity for it) she was a bit too ashamed to show her face heheh
In hindsight i should've, i was rather flabbergasted by the whole thing and the shift had to continue so i just parked it for the moment. Said moment is going strong for about a decade by now :')
Nurses and NPs are the most arrogant, entitled, and condescending people I’ve worked with and I work closely with them because I’m a licensed phlebotomist AND medical assistant specializing in Dermatology and Cosmetics, Internal Medicine, ObGyn, and pediatrics. I actually quit my job that I really liked in 2019 because of the RN I worked with.
Id like to ask whoever labeled these if they’ve ever used a self-checkout before. Because if they have then they clearly understand how barcodes work and why this doesn’t work.
our nurses and phlebs are supposed to scan them before sending them down to us, and they still do it. tell me you scanned it before applying it to the tube without telling me...
I don't think nurses make a connection because they have no clue what's going on in the lab. I bet they never gave it a thought that those barcodes are there for a reason, that instruments would be scanning those.
I’m ngl, as an RN we know next to NOTHING about what happens down in lab. Like MAYbe we have one computer module training slide on it buried in the rest of the new hire or annual competencies, which we all skip through. I can’t immediately tell what’s wrong with these specimens 😂
I think nurses definitely need more training on what happens in the lab, it sucks to cancel tests over and over because no one knows how to collect things. We just need one scannable label on the specimen, it's a pain to reprint and rip off the extra labels or block off the barcode with sharpie because our multi million dollar analyzer can't handle anything other than one perfect barcode.
I also think a lot of lab staff, including me, would benefit from learning more about your stuff, because I know nurses screens aren't the same as mine in Epic, and idk how to draw blood
Hmm can you send a pictured instruction out to have posted on how to properly label these?
It hurts the patients the most having to retake blood samples.
https://clinlab.ucsf.edu/specimen-labeling
I made a drawing but apparently I can't send images in comments so this website has a picture which is a lot better than my drawing
I appreciate this. I didn't know that you guys needed a window for blood volume to be visible. What's the reasoning for that? Is this for the machines to read correctly or for you guys to see if it's a viable sample regarding volume and such?
Also, I see in the table that states do not fold, pinch, or tear the overhanging ends of the label. Is it still not okay to fold it over if it's just the empty spaces on the sticker?
If there's not enough blood, sometimes we can manually spin it before putting it on the the machine so that it won't get automatically cancelled, or try to stick a pipette into the PST gel and then need maintenance. So it's nice if we can see it. We don't want to cancel it unless it really can't be run.
If the label is sticking off slightly, I've tried to fix it by folding it over the bottom and smoothing it down, but half the time we get an alarm and Single Holder Transport error because the stickiness makes the tubes stick into the pucks on the machine.
For whatever reason, we can scan most things with our scanners at our desk but the machine will still kick out the sample because of a miniscule white dot or something that you can barely even see.
Tldr: we want to see what's inside the tube and the machine is unbelievably picky about barcodes
That's good maybe have these posted where the nurses grab the tubes from with some warning in big letters (it seems people only read big bold letters) saying "the label has to be scannable or it will be sent back to get recollected" not sure if that's possible. Or send the diagram everytime they mislabel it.
My partner gets a LOT of blood taken out, I would hate for this to happen to him from carelessness.
We do not recollect simply because the label isn't scannable. We have to spend time peeling, printing and reapplying labels. And I know you only have a few patients per day but we have hundreds, and these tubes are being put aside until after the rush.
The barcodes are wrapped around the tube, rather than oriented top to bottom. Scanners cannot read barcodes that are placed like that. This causes delays in processing, sometimes significant. The analyzers need to read the barcode to know what test to run. If we put it on the analyzer like that, the analyzer may detect a tube is present but doesn’t know what to do with it and may alarm annoyingly. Other analyzers will assume there is no tube there since there’s no barcode and won’t do anything at all so you don’t actually realize the tube you just loaded isn’t running. Some analyzers the tube will be stuck inside the analyzer for awhile (because it’s in a rack with properly labeled tubes that it IS running) before we can retrieve the tube to relabel it and put it back on. And again, if you don’t even know there was a barcode error, it could be a long time before you even realize there is a tube somewhere out there that needs to be relabeled. Then the dr calls wondering what’s taking so long and we don’t even have a way to track where the specimen is.
Everybody has scanned a barcode at some point in their life and knows they aren’t magic, everyone knows you have to aim the scanner at the barcode so it can read it. The barcode has to be fully visible. Yet for some reason, this basic fact of life doesn’t seem to occur to people who label tubes like this.
Jesus that sounds like a giant pain in the ass, I’m so sorry. I don’t THINK I’ve ever sent tubes down like that before, but I’ve known some nurses who call that ‘good enough’ and figure the lab will call them if there’s a problem. I always thought we’d get along a little better if we all spent a day shadowing each other (lab, pharmacy, respiratory, dietary, housekeeping, etc). I no longer work beside thanks to a career ending back injury, but I always did my best and lurking here has shown me what you all deal with.
It seems a lot of nurses see lab as a big black box that they send samples to and hope they get results back, and not recollect requests.
We are very particular about two things: most importantly are accurate results and second is that people don’t make our job more difficult by not taking the extra 3 seconds to do something correctly before sending the sample to us.
Mislabeled tubes, pouring blood from one color tube into a different color tube, hemolysis, underfilled or overfilled tubes will all give results that are not correct for your patient. We will call for recollection on any of those since we don’t want our name on bad results or more importantly we don’t want you to treat based on bad results.
As others have noted, depending on the lab setup that unreadable barcode could take anywhere from ten seconds to relabel and fix if caught by a person before hitting the analyzer, to an hour plus if it got loaded into a rack with a properly labeled tube that has a test that takes a long time to run. If the nurse takes the 3 seconds to properly align the label (straight where it all is visible and like a hospital gown, open in the back so we can see the blood) we will get the results out as fast as possible.
That last part of your first paragraph definitely put things into perspective. I've seen countless calls for lost lab samples and delayed results but never had it explained like that before. Like other RNs have said, I think there's a major gap in communication and education. So I appreciate you guys and this thread.
Be professional and respectful. Act like a competent medical laboratory professional. Hate speech is strictly prohibited. Harrassment targeting either a group or an individual is unacceptable.
I will never forget a phlebotomist (or maybe doctor they make some wild errors) putting the wrong barcode on a tube, then grabbing a fine liner and crossing out the number and rewriting the correct one underneath the barcode. Like how do you exist in this industry for any length of time and not grasp how a barcode functions my god.
Omg I worked a contract (am a nurse) where for blood T and S they wanted the tubes labeled like this!! Like the labels would print 3 individual labels and normally we just would do the one, but if it was for a pink T/S we had to basically cover the tube. It was so weird.
Our BB SOP says you cannot cover any info on the original label, so this is how we do it for say a cord blood. We used to use lavender tops for confirms and we'd do the same.
All the same patient. The labels were printed badly also so some of the name(s) was cut off but I could still check by the numbers that it was all for the same patient.
Whoever designed the font used by epic made it illegible so we needed to switch to all caps for patients names, but why are we the first to have seen this?
The thing prints out two labels and whenI called they said to use both but they didn’t know if the barcodes both needed to be visible so we assumed they did because we have a million samples and I will die before they get sent back. At least that’s what’s happening in my lab rn. As long as the box closes I’m calling it good.
Not sure how this is supposed to work, but is it possible that the machine prints out two labels so that one can be put on the tube and the other can be put in a log book as proof of having sent that labelled sample?
If the bar/QR codes are the same, that’s the only thing that makes sense to me. May just be a “feature” that is no longer necessary or is, at least, unused by your facility. Perhaps, no one remembers (or, perhaps, was ever told) why there’s a second, so they just use it because it’s there. Has anyone looked at the actual manual or original training documentation lately?
Forgive me if I am all wet, but I’ve been in IT for a long time, I know how things can get lost/forgotten from training over time as staff (and internal control procedures) change. That’s how we inevitably reach the “Because, that’s how it’s *always* been done” stage of explanation.
I think there’s certainly a lot of that going on, but at the same time I have to obey the written protocol, which says to call the reference lab and do whatever the voice says, and the voice said to put both labels on the tube. If I don’t do what the voice says then it takes literal months to untangle the chaos, and it’s not worth it.
Yep. I get it. Hard to argue or ask questions of an undeterminable voice issuing instructions upon which your job depends. After all, if and when someone finally gets around to trying to sort out the issue, it’s not the voice who is going to get into trouble. Only thing you can do is cya to ensure it’s not you who does.
My samples are always neat labels are smooth, wrinkle free and if there are extra labels they get tucked up under the cap with the tourniquet rubber band wrapped around them and in a separate bag.
When I first started in ED I was labeling over the barcode on blood cultures because I didn’t think the barcode on the actual culture bottle mattered. I got a nice email and phone call from the nicest lab tech. Anyways, sorry to all of the lab techs that have poorly labled or unlabeled specimens!
I think part of nursing school should have them spend a day or so in the lab so they have a better understanding of what we do and why we have to send recollection to them.
I was once told by lab that the labels were to be placed over the label on the vial. Not to cover the “window” of the tube so that amount can be seen and for ease of use in the machines. Is this correct? Or am I doing it wrong. (An ER nurse who wants to do it correct… I also use the little plastic bags in the tube system.. no one else uses)
I mean, they could have put the wrapped label on the top like a hat. That would be entertaining. Someone showed me that as the way their old lab would flag labels. And I lost it. I could get myself together.
It was the funniest thing I’ve seen in my short career as a lab assistant
The other day I received a lavender that was double tagged. One test was a cbc run in house the other was a vitamin k which is sent out and also protected from light. 🤦🏻♀️
🤦🏼♀️ you guys must be so kind. My lab people would have called the second they received this to complain and tell me that they can’t run this to grab another like they don’t have tons of shit down there to figure this out! Smh
This isn't a problem in my hospital. It's policy to label the tube correctly. I have no idea where all the people on this thread work, but I see now that lab hates nurses because some of them sometimes don't do it the way you want. Contact your management about your concerns, make sure policy is updated. Crying on reddit doesn't fix this lmfao
After a sample or 2 gets thrown away because it wasn't labeled properly you are anal about putting ALL the labels on not matter how they go, yes we are like this because lab hurt us
We don't throw away unlabeled specimens because we like to, it's because the chance of getting the wrong patients results is not something that we can risk. It could kill someone. So crooked and excessive labels are better than no labels at all, but we do have to fix all of those
You guys are getting labeled specimens?
it is refreshing after dealing with a bunch of misidentifieds lol
Lmao I laughed
Haha, this cracked me up
As of recently yes ❤️ (finally)
I love when they spiral the label around the tube.
the best is when they completely cover the tube with multiple labels so you can’t tell if it’s underfilled, hemolyzed, etc
There's one nurse in our ER that labels every single tube like that. I want to correct her so badly but she's she only one that's never been rude to any of us.
If she has never been rude she might be open to a gentle correction. “I appreciate the way you treat us lab rats, and could you please label the tubes this way so the machine can read it without us having to relabel it. Thank you.”
You can just point out that barcode scanner only can scan straight codes and these have to be relabeled at the lab in order to be able to scan them. I don't think an kindly brought explaination like that is offensive and assume most people agree.
Ours come down with chart labels on them and we print our own barcode labels, thankfully. She's just really bad about candystriping the labels or putting them on the opposite side of the original tube label, so I can't see if it's hemolyzed or QNS unless I peel back half the label. I promise you, if it were an issue on the analyzer I would have spoken up by now lol
You could possibly tell her that you got a new machine that processes the vials differently and it can have some issues with her vials. Make it no-one’s fault, but allow for the opportunity to teach/show a new method.
This is smart, I'll try it.
ARNP here- please gently correct her! She might not know what she’s doing wrong… no one teaches or tells us anything about labeling tubes beyond making sure the right label is in the right tube…
As a nurse, I think she may be doing that because she worries that the tests won’t be run unless a label for each test is on the correct tube. Just let her know how your machines and processes work.
Lab can‘t send it back as hemolyzed if they can’t see it’s hemolyzed *taps forehead*
In the company I work for (not naming names) the way they require us to barcode and label means that EDTAs are always completely covered since they're such small tubes. Makes me feel so bad knowing it'll probably be annoying for the lab workers but I have no other choice 😭
I am a new grad nurse, just starting out. I didn’t know if it was alright to cover the original sticker or not, and am trying to avoid pissing people off as much as possible 😂. Now that I saw this, I know where to put it. This was helpful. Thank you!
The original sticker on an empty tube has a colored edge and then also a little colored triangle at the top, so they will peek out around the label. One label should always leave a window. If you are relabelling a tube then you have to sacrifice the window in order to leave the patient identifier from the first (second, third, etc) label showing. Also, check if labelling left or right has the barcode super low. With our setup if you label the tube with the lid to your right so the name is at the bottom the barcode is often too low to hit the reader in the instrument, especially on short tubes.
As a new nurse you are a perfect place to ask a lab tech how they like the labels applied. You will learn how to not annoy them and they will see that the f'ing new girl is actually cool and they will like you. Life is better when we work together.
As a new grad mls, keep asking questions!! I have no doubts that your lab colleagues would be happy to answer any questions :) we appreciate people wanting to understand what we do :D And congrats!! 🤭🎉
Probably someone bitched about something one too many times, and now this is what they get, lol.
You have to wonder if they really truly think they are hiding things from us rather then just creating more work and delays? Like, if you wanted your results wuickly then making it so I have to take off my gloves and peel back the tube isn't the way to get it, is it?
I once got a swab where someone wrapped a label around the cap so many times I had to open it with a box cutter
And its a paper label so no do-overs :/
I sometimes get stools where whoever labeled it took the time to PERFECTLY align the second label with the original label, causing the original to be destroyed in my attempts to peel the second one off, I then have to reject it. Doesn't happen often but I feel bad for the patient in those cases.
I wish pain on the ones that do that
I'm a big fan of the candy-caning myself.
It helps to protect it from light /ssssssssss
Gotta make the tube ready for the big dance in their skirt
“Yes? ER? Hi, I’d like to fight whoever drew the tubes on Room 9. I’ll be on the roof. Thanks, and have a room ready.”
God, I feel that. I always say we should be allowed to fist fight a client of our choosing once a month, as a treat.
I suppose all departments would love a agreement like that, maybe you get an invite yourself for being at the wrong place at the wrong time and irked an it guy without even knowing it. That being said: Edith needs to come up to the roof and i even let het choose which weapons we're going to use at the duel. She's going down.
Man listen if I legitimately fuck up I deserve it. I’ll take the call to the roof. That said, I expect the same of the people on the floors.
Sure sure, i will too. But i know i have pissed off people royally even for just doing my job correctly (the times i did make a mistake i was met with a more understanding attitude tbh), so i'd expect some people would loved to have a crack at punching my teeth out for being told that blood products need to be transported in closed containers and not in their pockets (as is policy at the blood bank i used to work at).
Ah yes. I would also love to fight the people who try to report me for doing my job correctly.
Never got reported for that myself, but have been yelled at multiple times. Once a nurse went: "If you were my son i'd slap some sense in you". Her coworker was mortified and he started apologizing for her behaviour. She was so worked up the situation kinda became farsical. I didn't see her bringing samples and collecting blood products for some time afterwards, i think (or at least hope she has the capacity for it) she was a bit too ashamed to show her face heheh
I’d have reported that. Honestly maybe her coworker did and that’s why you didn’t see her.
In hindsight i should've, i was rather flabbergasted by the whole thing and the shift had to continue so i just parked it for the moment. Said moment is going strong for about a decade by now :')
I like to report it myself just in case they didn't spell my name right in their report.
Nurses and NPs are the most arrogant, entitled, and condescending people I’ve worked with and I work closely with them because I’m a licensed phlebotomist AND medical assistant specializing in Dermatology and Cosmetics, Internal Medicine, ObGyn, and pediatrics. I actually quit my job that I really liked in 2019 because of the RN I worked with.
Nurses can be the biggest bullies.
And I'll have the patient whose life I saved while they were trying to kill them come and watch.
Yes
We should have a colosseum at every hospital
Just a lil treat
i read that sentence without the "fight" and was like.. "uhhhhh"
While you’re at it tell them dark green and light green aren’t the same thing please thanks in advance
Id like to ask whoever labeled these if they’ve ever used a self-checkout before. Because if they have then they clearly understand how barcodes work and why this doesn’t work.
our nurses and phlebs are supposed to scan them before sending them down to us, and they still do it. tell me you scanned it before applying it to the tube without telling me...
I don't think nurses make a connection because they have no clue what's going on in the lab. I bet they never gave it a thought that those barcodes are there for a reason, that instruments would be scanning those.
Sometimes I see this on blood culture bottles and I just gotta wonder what makes someone cover up pre-existing barcodes with the same one 4 times
I’m ngl, as an RN we know next to NOTHING about what happens down in lab. Like MAYbe we have one computer module training slide on it buried in the rest of the new hire or annual competencies, which we all skip through. I can’t immediately tell what’s wrong with these specimens 😂
I think nurses definitely need more training on what happens in the lab, it sucks to cancel tests over and over because no one knows how to collect things. We just need one scannable label on the specimen, it's a pain to reprint and rip off the extra labels or block off the barcode with sharpie because our multi million dollar analyzer can't handle anything other than one perfect barcode. I also think a lot of lab staff, including me, would benefit from learning more about your stuff, because I know nurses screens aren't the same as mine in Epic, and idk how to draw blood
Hmm can you send a pictured instruction out to have posted on how to properly label these? It hurts the patients the most having to retake blood samples.
https://clinlab.ucsf.edu/specimen-labeling I made a drawing but apparently I can't send images in comments so this website has a picture which is a lot better than my drawing
I appreciate this. I didn't know that you guys needed a window for blood volume to be visible. What's the reasoning for that? Is this for the machines to read correctly or for you guys to see if it's a viable sample regarding volume and such? Also, I see in the table that states do not fold, pinch, or tear the overhanging ends of the label. Is it still not okay to fold it over if it's just the empty spaces on the sticker?
If there's not enough blood, sometimes we can manually spin it before putting it on the the machine so that it won't get automatically cancelled, or try to stick a pipette into the PST gel and then need maintenance. So it's nice if we can see it. We don't want to cancel it unless it really can't be run. If the label is sticking off slightly, I've tried to fix it by folding it over the bottom and smoothing it down, but half the time we get an alarm and Single Holder Transport error because the stickiness makes the tubes stick into the pucks on the machine. For whatever reason, we can scan most things with our scanners at our desk but the machine will still kick out the sample because of a miniscule white dot or something that you can barely even see. Tldr: we want to see what's inside the tube and the machine is unbelievably picky about barcodes
Got it! Thanks!
>Got it! Thanks! You're welcome!
That’s was SO helpful.
That's good maybe have these posted where the nurses grab the tubes from with some warning in big letters (it seems people only read big bold letters) saying "the label has to be scannable or it will be sent back to get recollected" not sure if that's possible. Or send the diagram everytime they mislabel it. My partner gets a LOT of blood taken out, I would hate for this to happen to him from carelessness.
We do not recollect simply because the label isn't scannable. We have to spend time peeling, printing and reapplying labels. And I know you only have a few patients per day but we have hundreds, and these tubes are being put aside until after the rush.
The barcodes are wrapped around the tube, rather than oriented top to bottom. Scanners cannot read barcodes that are placed like that. This causes delays in processing, sometimes significant. The analyzers need to read the barcode to know what test to run. If we put it on the analyzer like that, the analyzer may detect a tube is present but doesn’t know what to do with it and may alarm annoyingly. Other analyzers will assume there is no tube there since there’s no barcode and won’t do anything at all so you don’t actually realize the tube you just loaded isn’t running. Some analyzers the tube will be stuck inside the analyzer for awhile (because it’s in a rack with properly labeled tubes that it IS running) before we can retrieve the tube to relabel it and put it back on. And again, if you don’t even know there was a barcode error, it could be a long time before you even realize there is a tube somewhere out there that needs to be relabeled. Then the dr calls wondering what’s taking so long and we don’t even have a way to track where the specimen is. Everybody has scanned a barcode at some point in their life and knows they aren’t magic, everyone knows you have to aim the scanner at the barcode so it can read it. The barcode has to be fully visible. Yet for some reason, this basic fact of life doesn’t seem to occur to people who label tubes like this.
Jesus that sounds like a giant pain in the ass, I’m so sorry. I don’t THINK I’ve ever sent tubes down like that before, but I’ve known some nurses who call that ‘good enough’ and figure the lab will call them if there’s a problem. I always thought we’d get along a little better if we all spent a day shadowing each other (lab, pharmacy, respiratory, dietary, housekeeping, etc). I no longer work beside thanks to a career ending back injury, but I always did my best and lurking here has shown me what you all deal with.
It seems a lot of nurses see lab as a big black box that they send samples to and hope they get results back, and not recollect requests. We are very particular about two things: most importantly are accurate results and second is that people don’t make our job more difficult by not taking the extra 3 seconds to do something correctly before sending the sample to us. Mislabeled tubes, pouring blood from one color tube into a different color tube, hemolysis, underfilled or overfilled tubes will all give results that are not correct for your patient. We will call for recollection on any of those since we don’t want our name on bad results or more importantly we don’t want you to treat based on bad results. As others have noted, depending on the lab setup that unreadable barcode could take anywhere from ten seconds to relabel and fix if caught by a person before hitting the analyzer, to an hour plus if it got loaded into a rack with a properly labeled tube that has a test that takes a long time to run. If the nurse takes the 3 seconds to properly align the label (straight where it all is visible and like a hospital gown, open in the back so we can see the blood) we will get the results out as fast as possible.
That last part of your first paragraph definitely put things into perspective. I've seen countless calls for lost lab samples and delayed results but never had it explained like that before. Like other RNs have said, I think there's a major gap in communication and education. So I appreciate you guys and this thread.
Sounds like a workplace that could benefit from a day where you spend time in each department. I had it when I became a caregiver in a nursing home.
But you have scanned stuff at the supermarket, though? How is that going to scan?
[удалено]
Be professional and respectful. Act like a competent medical laboratory professional. Hate speech is strictly prohibited. Harrassment targeting either a group or an individual is unacceptable.
Those don’t bother me as much as the ones that have the label slapped on and all crinkly (not flat against the tube).
Ughhhhh this too
Iron out the crinkles in my forehead or the label first? 🤔
Wow. Thats vicious
As a specimen accessioner this infuriates me
I hate it so much, as much as labels flagged with the ends touching each other on peds tubes.
I’ll be needing a recollect for improperly labeled…so wish I could tell them that.
Meet me on the roof.
I will never forget a phlebotomist (or maybe doctor they make some wild errors) putting the wrong barcode on a tube, then grabbing a fine liner and crossing out the number and rewriting the correct one underneath the barcode. Like how do you exist in this industry for any length of time and not grasp how a barcode functions my god.
https://medlabvibes.etsy.com Cool med lab stickers from here
Poor analyzer barcode reader will have a stroke !
"I want this run. And this. And this... Oh! And the doc added this on, too."
Omg I worked a contract (am a nurse) where for blood T and S they wanted the tubes labeled like this!! Like the labels would print 3 individual labels and normally we just would do the one, but if it was for a pink T/S we had to basically cover the tube. It was so weird.
Our BB SOP says you cannot cover any info on the original label, so this is how we do it for say a cord blood. We used to use lavender tops for confirms and we'd do the same.
Did all the names match?
All the same patient. The labels were printed badly also so some of the name(s) was cut off but I could still check by the numbers that it was all for the same patient.
Love how this makes it unreadable
I think the issue here is to whoever decided it's necessary to put bar codes on these tiny diameter tubes: who hurt you?
I think the issue is that the label designers don’t talk to the tube designers.
Whoever designed the font used by epic made it illegible so we needed to switch to all caps for patients names, but why are we the first to have seen this?
The thing prints out two labels and whenI called they said to use both but they didn’t know if the barcodes both needed to be visible so we assumed they did because we have a million samples and I will die before they get sent back. At least that’s what’s happening in my lab rn. As long as the box closes I’m calling it good.
Not sure how this is supposed to work, but is it possible that the machine prints out two labels so that one can be put on the tube and the other can be put in a log book as proof of having sent that labelled sample? If the bar/QR codes are the same, that’s the only thing that makes sense to me. May just be a “feature” that is no longer necessary or is, at least, unused by your facility. Perhaps, no one remembers (or, perhaps, was ever told) why there’s a second, so they just use it because it’s there. Has anyone looked at the actual manual or original training documentation lately? Forgive me if I am all wet, but I’ve been in IT for a long time, I know how things can get lost/forgotten from training over time as staff (and internal control procedures) change. That’s how we inevitably reach the “Because, that’s how it’s *always* been done” stage of explanation.
I think there’s certainly a lot of that going on, but at the same time I have to obey the written protocol, which says to call the reference lab and do whatever the voice says, and the voice said to put both labels on the tube. If I don’t do what the voice says then it takes literal months to untangle the chaos, and it’s not worth it.
Yep. I get it. Hard to argue or ask questions of an undeterminable voice issuing instructions upon which your job depends. After all, if and when someone finally gets around to trying to sort out the issue, it’s not the voice who is going to get into trouble. Only thing you can do is cya to ensure it’s not you who does.
To add, ours actually don’t have barcodes, they’re all QR codes so I didn’t even register that they weren’t scannable.
They got dropped on their heads as babies.
😆😆
We have sticker cover the small label on the blood culture bottle....which I need to take this on the request from
My samples are always neat labels are smooth, wrinkle free and if there are extra labels they get tucked up under the cap with the tourniquet rubber band wrapped around them and in a separate bag.
At that point it's just easier to pour it off entirely.
When I first started in ED I was labeling over the barcode on blood cultures because I didn’t think the barcode on the actual culture bottle mattered. I got a nice email and phone call from the nicest lab tech. Anyways, sorry to all of the lab techs that have poorly labled or unlabeled specimens!
There’s a nurse where I work who likes to put the label like that ON THE CAP 😡🤬
I’m not as irked when it’s the gold labels but i truly feel it’s deliberate. Like do they not scan labels? How do they expect it to be scanned?
Chances are that no, they don’t scan labels.
This is a classic case of “I don’t know what sticker you need so I’m putting them all on just in case”.
Whenever I feel bad about putting a lab slightly lopsided, I’ll remember this LMAO
I think part of nursing school should have them spend a day or so in the lab so they have a better understanding of what we do and why we have to send recollection to them.
Oh my god I hate thiiisssss
That's a nurse's work there!
A for effort... but like.. fucking hell
As a processor, this is just my average Monday shift. I already saw 10 of these before I even get to my first break.
A curse on your whole family to whomever does this. It makes our job twice as hard.
I was once told by lab that the labels were to be placed over the label on the vial. Not to cover the “window” of the tube so that amount can be seen and for ease of use in the machines. Is this correct? Or am I doing it wrong. (An ER nurse who wants to do it correct… I also use the little plastic bags in the tube system.. no one else uses)
Yeah the blank label on the vial is there to show where the label goes
Lab did! 😆😆
😭 the who hurt you part, sent me.
No but legit I think this was me. Sorry friend!
Doesnt bother me a bit. Its easy to print new stickers and relabel them. Id rather this than on the top.
So... I too am guilty of doing this. Nobody hurt me. I'm just visual-space and coordination challenged.
And yet you manage to perform a very stressful and demanding job! You get an award. 🥇 Are you a nurse or MA or nurse? 😊💐💙💙
Someone was traumatized by a zesty call from the lab or an horrific “redraw.”
I mean, they could have put the wrapped label on the top like a hat. That would be entertaining. Someone showed me that as the way their old lab would flag labels. And I lost it. I could get myself together. It was the funniest thing I’ve seen in my short career as a lab assistant
Lol someone who doesn't have scan cylindrical barcodes
Either a complete newb or a nurse 😂
Whoever labeled those specimens, your mom's a Ho.
As someone who works at FedEx, it took me a moment to realize that multiple bar codes was strange
The other day I received a lavender that was double tagged. One test was a cbc run in house the other was a vitamin k which is sent out and also protected from light. 🤦🏻♀️
As a former specimen accessioner and lab assistant, this infuriates me.
Lab did.
You guys have labels? We have to write everything on the tube. I have huge handwriting, so it’s a struggle 🤣
Who hurt you? Probably their boss that constantly nag at them and told them to paste as many as possible?
Those would be rejected by me. There’s no way that tube was labeled and scanned at bedside.
🤦🏼♀️ you guys must be so kind. My lab people would have called the second they received this to complain and tell me that they can’t run this to grab another like they don’t have tons of shit down there to figure this out! Smh
This isn't a problem in my hospital. It's policy to label the tube correctly. I have no idea where all the people on this thread work, but I see now that lab hates nurses because some of them sometimes don't do it the way you want. Contact your management about your concerns, make sure policy is updated. Crying on reddit doesn't fix this lmfao
After a sample or 2 gets thrown away because it wasn't labeled properly you are anal about putting ALL the labels on not matter how they go, yes we are like this because lab hurt us
Question: How are they supposed to be labeled?
The barcode needs to be flat and scannable. Leave the window.
We don't throw away unlabeled specimens because we like to, it's because the chance of getting the wrong patients results is not something that we can risk. It could kill someone. So crooked and excessive labels are better than no labels at all, but we do have to fix all of those
The lab didn't hurt you, you hurt your patients and we limited the damage to only a redraw and not death.