Venepuncture

Today, I was taught venepunture. For the many of you out there who are now going, 'HUH?' venepunture is basically the art of taking bloods. See the picture below? That's basically what i did today in class. puncturing a fake hand. (trust me, it looks less scary in real life, the fake arm). Having been prodded multiple times by the doc, i kind of knew how to look for the veins, what type of veins to use etc. (though of course, he didnt go to the extent of telling me the names of the veins)

the veins that are normally use are the median cubital vein, the basilic vein or the median cephilic vein. so next time you go have your bloods taken, impress the doctor or nurse taking your bloods by rattling these names off (chances are they have forgotten them)

I was all eager to take my turn at sticking the needle into the fake arm. however, when it came to my turn, though my needle was definitely in the vein (trust me those fake arms are so obvious, its hard to get it wrong), no blood came out. Urgh.. and I felt like the stupid asian international student again (which man, you can feel that sometimes esp when they seem to know everything cos they offer answers all the time). Fortunately for me, it was not cos my skill but cos the fake arm had no blood in him! sheesh. did take longer than expected but managed to get 'blood' out in the end. =)