Get comfortable drawing blood and placing an IV before you ever do it on a real patient.

This is an illustrated, hands-on, self-paced online course in venipuncture, phlebotomy, and IV skills, built around The Apprentice Doctor® Venipuncture Training Kit, which includes all the instruments and items you need. You’ll work through more than 100 lessons and hands-on projects across six sections.

You’ll need a basic understanding of human (or veterinary) anatomy and physiology, especially the cardiovascular system, to learn and safely apply the techniques in this course.

Every “simple” venipuncture is, at heart, a minor surgical procedure, and the basic principles of surgery apply:

• Have a solid grasp of the basic medical sciences, especially the anatomy and physiology of the relevant areas and systems.
• Follow the basic principles of sterility and asepsis, including barrier techniques.
• Take a medical history and use it to adjust your treatment plan.
• Use good lighting.
• Respect life and bodily tissues.
• Carry out the procedure in a humane and professional manner.
• Anticipate complications and deal with them promptly and effectively.

The Apprentice Doctor® Venipuncture, Phlebotomy and IV Skills Course and Kit are not a substitute for clinical training. They give you a firm foundation so you can get through the initial learning curve in a non-clinical setting, then walk into the clinical situation with confidence.

What’s inside the course

1. Foundations and safety

Terminology, the types of intravenous fluids, the anatomy of the circulatory system and blood, sharps safety, and proper disposal. Real case studies show why each one matters.

2. Preparation

Everything that happens before the needle goes in:

• Taking a medical history and reading what it tells you
• Aseptic technique, handwashing, and donning and removing both clean and sterile gloves
• Patient positioning
• Applying a tourniquet four different ways (disposable, Tournistrip®, reusable, and blood pressure cuff)
• Finding and mapping the veins of the arm, leg, face, neck, and chest, including the valves
• Preparing a puncture site aseptically for routine draws, blood cultures, and donors

3. Collecting blood and placing lines

The hands-on core of the course:

• Capillary blood collection in adults and babies
• Subcutaneous and intramuscular injections
• Drawing venous blood with a vacuum tube, with a syringe and needle, and with a butterfly needle
• Starting and removing an IV line
• Arterial blood draws, the modified Allen’s test, and finding the body’s pulse points
• Therapeutic phlebotomy, blood groups and agglutination, and blood donation

4. Related clinical topics

The wider picture you’ll meet on the wards: central venous lines, arterial catheterization, coronary arteriography, interventional radiology, kidney dialysis, ports, parenteral nutrition, anesthesia, and infusion pumps.

5. Complications and how to handle them

What can go wrong, and what to do about it: vasovagal syncope, allergic reactions, hematoma and ecchymosis, tissue infiltration, blocked cannulas, catheter infections, accidental intra-arterial injection, thrombosis and embolism (including air embolism), nerve damage, and needlestick injuries.

6. Final assessment

• Section quizzes throughout
• A multiple-choice final assessment

Who should enroll

For medical, premedical, EMT, nursing, phlebotomy, medical assistant, and veterinary students, paramedics, and military medics.

Setting

Online and self-paced.

Duration

About 40 hours, including the practical projects.

We recommend you don’t rush it. Keep to about three hours a day so each topic has time to settle. With full-time study you could finish in under a week, but spacing it out works better for what you actually remember. Before each session, take a few minutes to review the previous day’s work.

Certified credits

Counts as the equivalent of forty shadowing hours.

One half academic credit per 80 hours of courses taken. Transcript available upon request.

Important notes

– Without a formal medical qualification, using these techniques on the public or on animals can expose you to medico-legal action.

– The Apprentice Doctor® Venipuncture Course is supporting material to supplement formally registered and accredited phlebotomy, paramedic, medical, dental, and veterinary courses. On its own, it does not qualify you as a phlebotomist or any other medical professional.

– The surgical gloves contain latex. Latex-free gloves are available on request.

– The course and kit suit students aged 16 and older. Adult supervision is recommended for students under 18.

Click here to order your Apprentice Doctor® Venipuncture, IV & Phlebotomy Practice Kit