August 25, 2016 — Daily Rounds
AIIMS resident doctors not to draw blood samples from Aug 26, says it’s the nurses’ duty
There seems to be serious ambiguity regarding who should draw blood sample from patients in AIIMS: the doctors or the nursing staff?
Resident doctors of AIIMS have declared that they would stop drawing blood samples from August 26. They consider it the duty of the nursing staff.
- At present, resident doctors have to generate barcode as well. This makes the doctors spend most of their morning time drawing and sending samples, leaving little time for the patients.
- AIIM’s nursing union however says sending blood samples for investigations is the resident doctors’ responsibility and also part of their residency program.
- In various developed nations including the US, hospitals have specialists to draw blood samples. Nurses too are well-equipped to do it.
As per Dr Deepak Agarwal, a senior neurosurgeon at AIIMS and also the head of the hospital’s IT division, since error in blood sampling can cause serious medical issues, doctors are best equipped to do it. As for the heavy patient load, he said that new recruitments were being made to meet the shortage.
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