WHO Guidelines on Drawing Blood: Best Practices in Phlebotomy

• capillary sampling (i.e. finger or heel-pricks or, rarely, an ear lobe puncture) for analysis of
capillary blood specimens for all ages; examples include testing of iron levels before blood
donation, blood glucose monitoring, and rapid tests for HIV, malaria and syphilis.
Blood collection is used to obtain blood from donors for various therapeutic purposes.
1.6 Structure of document
This document is divided into five parts:
• Part I introduces the topic and the document.
• Part II covers different aspects of phlebotomy. Each chapter in this part is divided into
sections that give background information, practical guidance and illustrations (where
applicable). Part 2 includes
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the steps recommended for safe phlebotomy, including accepted principles for drawing
and collecting blood (Chapter 2);
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the various open and closed systems available for phlebotomy (Chapter 3);
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collection of blood for transfusion (Chapter 4);
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collection of arterial blood, for determination of blood gases (Chapter 5);
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aspects of blood sampling specific to paediatric and neonatal patients (Chapter 6);
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capillary sampling (Chapter 7)
• Part III deals with implementation, monitoring and evaluation; it covers
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ways to implement best practices in phlebotomy (Chapter 8);
––
use of a monitoring and evaluation system to document improvements in phlebotomy
practice (Chapter 9).
• Part IV lists the references.
• Part V contains a set of annexes that provide additional information on specific topics; it
also includes a glossary.
6 <strong>WHO</strong> guidelines on drawing blood: best practices in phlebotomy