• Administering Vaccines
  • General Issues

While giving an injection, a nurse had blood return in the syringe upon aspirating. What should she have done with the vaccine?

Although aspiration is not recommended, if you do aspirate and get a flash of blood, then the procedure is to withdraw the needle and start over. The syringe, needle, and contaminated dose of vaccine should be discarded in a sharps container, and a new syringe and needle should be used to draw up and administer another dose of vaccine. This is a waste of expensive vaccine that could be avoided by simply not aspirating.

Last reviewed: December 28, 2022

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