Blood sampling process: impact of nursing training towards reduction of sample error

Background: The most common sources of error in the pre analytical phases are considered to be at the stage of patient preparation and sample collection. In order to reduce the pre analytical errors, we aimed to determine the level of nurse’s knowledge about the pre analytic phase before and after planned training. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted among 100 staff nurse in Apollo hospitals, Guwahati. Purposive Sampling technique was used to select the required staff. The data was collected through structured knowledge questionnaire to assess the knowledge of the staff, an observational checklist to assess the compliance of the process and survey method to evaluate the impact of nursing training towards reduction of sample error. Results: The pre-test results depicted that majority 41% of the staff had good knowledge regarding sampling process, 37% had fair knowledge, 18% had excellent knowledge and 4% had poor knowledge. The post test results depicted that majority of the staff, 69% had excellent knowledge, 28% had good knowledge and 3% had fair knowledge. The compliance rate assessed based on 16 criteria showed 97% compliance to sampling process. The study also revealed that there was significant reduction in the total number of sample error post training on phlebotomy from 34 sample errors (Jan – March 2022) to 9 sample error post training (April-June 2022). Conclusion: The findings of the present study concluded that the majority of the staff had good knowledge regarding blood sampling process but the practice carried out by the staff were not fully compliant towards reduction of sample error. Yet there was a significant reduction of blood sample error reported from phlebotomy department.