Bedside procedures

How to collect blood cultures

Other platforms explain it with text and video. In VMS you practice it on the patient.

MD / DONursing (NCLEX)
Practice it in VR with Blocky

Contaminated blood cultures lead to wrong treatment. Clean technique is the whole skill.

Step by step

  1. Timing

    Before antibiotics when possible, without delaying treatment in sepsis. [1]

  2. Clean the bottles

    Remove caps and scrub tops with alcohol. [2]

  3. Clean the skin

    Chlorhexidine-alcohol, scrub and let dry; do not touch again. [2]

  4. Collect

    Fill aerobic then anaerobic bottle (with a butterfly), to the volume marked. [2]

  5. Two sets

    From two separate sites. [2]

  6. Label

    Site, time, at the bedside. [3]

Common errors

Practice it in VMS

In VMS you do this on the patient, not on paper: every step goes on the checklist with a score, and in Teach mode Blocky tells you what comes next.

VMS cases that train this skill

78 VMS cases train this skill: open the case library

Sources

  1. CDC, Guideline for Isolation Precautions (2007) and PPE sequence
  2. Open RN, Nursing Skills 2e (Chippewa Valley Technical College) (CC BY 4.0)
  3. The Joint Commission, National Patient Safety Goals
  4. OpenStax, Clinical Nursing Skills (CC BY 4.0)

Steps adapted from Open RN, Nursing Skills 2e (Chippewa Valley Technical College) and OpenStax, Clinical Nursing Skills, licensed under CC BY 4.0. VMS is not affiliated with these organizations. Updated: 2026-10-11.