Cholesterol Screening Rehearsal

Step 1

Introduce your name and title

Put on lab coat and gloves

Step 2

Prepare all items for the screening. Lay out mat, take out supplies, and assemble the capillary and plunger

• Plunger goes to red

• Blood goes to black

Step 3

Ask the patient if they are fasting or nonfasting, and then select the appropriate cassette based on what the patient says.

“I am selecting the appropriate cassette based on [fasting/nonfasting]”

Step 4

Check cassette for expiration date and state what the date is

“I am checking the expiration date, which is _”

Step 5

Swab the finger with alcohol

Do NOT rub or blow on the swabbed finger

Step 6

Poke the patient on the top or side of the finger

Wipe away the first drop of blood with a cotton ball

Step 7

Fill up the capillary to the appropriate mark

Do not let the plunger end dip below the open end; don’t let plunger fall out

Step 8

Dispense the blood into the cassette

Step 9

Give the patient a cotton ball to hold on the wound and offer them a band-aid on their finger

Step 10

Verbalize that you are placing the lipid cassette correctly in the Cholestech LDX Analyzer.

“I am placing the lipid cassette correctly into the Cholestech Analyzer machine”

Step 11

Grader will give you a list of lipid results. Educate the patient on ideal cholesterol levels for a normal individual.

Tcholesterol: “The ideal level for all your fat is under 200”

LDL-c: “The ideal level for your major bad cholesterol is under 100”

Non-HDL-c: “The complete picture of your bad cholesterol is ideally under 130”

HDL-c: “The ideal level for your major good cholesterol is over 40 for men and over 50 for women”

TG: “The ideal level for fat & oil coming from calories you don’t use right away is under 150”

Then, read the lipid values and explain results to the patient as high, low, or ideal.

Step 12

Discard used lancet, capillary, and cassette into the sharps container

Discards used gloves, gauze, bandages, and any other biohazard material into biohazard waste bag