Title : Bridging the gap: Nursing laboratory collaboration for safer, smarter care
Abstract:
Laboratory testing influences the majority of clinical decision-making, yet the laboratory remains one of the least understood departments in health care. Nurses and laboratory professionals share a common goal of delivering safe, effective, and timely patient care, but differences in workflows and limited understanding of one another’s roles can create barriers that contribute to diagnostic delays, specimen rejection, and preventable errors. This presentation explores the critical relationship between nursing practice and laboratory operations, emphasizing how stronger interdisciplinary collaboration can improve patient outcomes while reducing inefficiencies across the continuum of care.
Participants will gain insight into the laboratory testing process from specimen collection through result reporting, with a particular focus on the pre-analytical phase, where the majority of preventable laboratory errors occur. The session will examine common causes of specimen rejection and inaccurate results, including patient identification errors, improper labeling, incorrect order of draw, inadequate specimen volume, hemolysis, lipemia, and poor specimen mixing techniques. Participants will learn how these seemingly small deviations can significantly affect laboratory accuracy, turnaround time, and clinical decision-making.
