This document provides guidance on specimen management for nursing students. It discusses the importance of proper specimen collection, handling, transportation and storage to ensure quality laboratory test results. Key points include: - Specimen management is important to reduce laboratory errors and involves proper instructions, collection, handling, transportation and storage. - Universal precautions should be followed when collecting all specimens to prevent exposure to biohazards. Samples must be properly labeled and packaged for transport. - The type of specimen and collection method depends on the infection or test being performed. Examples provided include blood, urine, stool and sputum collection procedures. - Transport media is used to maintain specimen viability during transit to the laboratory and varies based on specimen type. Strict

1. MUNI UNIVERSITY
FACULTY HEALTH SCIENCE
DEPARTMENT OF NURSING
BNS II, SEMESTER I
MICROBIOLOGY, NSM 2115
PRACTICAL 2: SPECIMEN MANAGEMENT
INSTRUCTORS:
1. William Edema
2. Cosmas Andruga

2. Scope of the practical
In this practical, you will:
• Have an overview of specimen management
• Get acquainted with common sample
collection materials.
• Demonstrate blood and urine sample
collection procedures

3. Objectives
• General consideration for sample collection
• Sample safety considerations
• Rejection criteria
• Collection of different samples from different sites
• Packaging & Transportation

4. Why Specimen Management?
The Quality of any
Laboratory Test Result is
only as good as the
specimen received in the
laboratory

5. How do we achieve Quality?

6. Specimen Management
Part of process control, one of the essentials of
a quality management system.
Encompasses:
 Proper instructions to patient
 Patient preparation
 Specimen collection
 Specimen handling
 Specimen transportation
 Specimen storage
 Specimen preparation/processing

7. Specimen management activities

8. Specimen management
 Pre-analytical stage
 source for most laboratory errors

9. or
Important questions before
collecting a specimen
• Are you suspecting an Infection ?
• If so what is the Nature of infection,
eg Bacterial, Viral, Mycological
Parasitological
• Which tests are your priority ?
• When to collect the specimen ?
• How to collect the specimen ?
• Am I choosing the correct container ?
• Why to send the specimens promptly,
if not what I should do ?

10. Specimen management responsibilities

11. Specimen management responsibilities

12. Specimen management responsibilities
.......improper instruction to patient!!!!

13. Sample Collection &
transport

14. General consideration for proper
sample collection
-Every laboratory should provide proper
guidelines for collection of samples
-All diagnostic information depends on
quality of sample recieved
-If sample collection, transport, media are
not proper, it will give false results

15. General consideration for proper
sample collection
Choice of specimen depends on the type of
infection e.g. blood stream, GIT, urethral tract, etc.
 Aseptic techniques essential
 Anatomic sites and locations
 Adequate amount/volume
 Tissue/body fluids preferred to swabs
 Proper timing for collection
 Accompanied by request form

16. • Collect sample before administering
antimicrobial agents when possible.
• Collect sample with as little
contamination from indigenous
microbiota as possible to ensure that
the sample will be representative of the
infected site.

17. • Utilize appropriate collection devices.
Use sterile equipment and aseptic
technique to collect specimens to
prevent introduction of microorganisms
during invasive procedures.
• Clearly label the specimen container
with the patient’s name and
identification number. Always include
date and time of collection and your
initials.

18. • Collect an adequate amount of
specimen. Inadequate amounts of
specimen may yield false-negative
results.
• Identify the specimen source
and/or specific site correctly so
that proper culture media will be
selected during processing the
laboratory.

19. • Collect specimens in sturdy, sterile,
screw-cap, leak proof containers with
lids that do not create an aerosol when
opened.
• Collect sample after proper preparation
of area by spirit and povidone iodine

20. Sample Safety considerations
• Follow universal precaution guidelines. Treat
all specimens as potentially biohazardous.
• Laboratory workers should use appropriate
barrier protection (such as gloves and
laboratory coat or gown) when collecting or
handling specimens. If splashing may occur,
protective eyewear, face masks, and aprons
may be necessary.

21. • Do not contaminate the external
surface of the collection container
and/or its accompanying paperwork.
• Minimize direct handling of specimens
in transit from the patient to the
laboratory. Use plastic sealable bags
with a separate pouch for the
laboratory requisition orders or
transport carriers (for example, small
buckets with rigid handles).

22. Label High risk Specimens
• Sputum with
suspected
Tuberculosis
• Fecal samples
suspected with
Cholera, Typhoid,
• Serum when
suspected with
HIV/ HBV/HCV,
infections

23. Specimen containers
Must be:
 Leak proof
 Shatterproof (unbreakable)
 Sterile (for culture and sensitivity)

24. Specimen containers
Stool
Sterile universal container with spoon
attached to inside of the screw cap
Urine
Sterile wide
mouthed container
Sputum
Squat wide-mouthed container
Blood
Sterile bottle, large enough to hold 50
ml of pre-added liquid medium and
about 5 – 10 ml of patient’s blood
Swabs
A sterile pledget of
absorbent material, usually
cotton wool, mounted on a
thin stick.

25. A Request form
• Should include:
-Name ,Age ,Sex,Address
-IPD/ OPD No ,ward,
-Time and Date,
-Urgent / Routine,
-Type of specimen
-Investigation needed
-History of patient
-Provisional diagnosis
-Doctor’s name and sign

26. When to Request Transport
Medium
• When facilities are not available to perform
the desired tests at the place of collection or
laboratory located far away, request the
Diagnostic laboratories to advice on
transportation of specimens, and consider how
to preserve and transport in ideal medium
before it is processed
• Popularly used transport medium are
-Amie 's transport Medium:
Gonococcal infection
-Carry blair medium: stool
-V.R Medium: Stool

27. Collection of different samples
• Blood
• Urine
• Stool
• Rectal swab
• Sputum
• Csf
• Mycology samples
• Wound swabs
• Water sample

33. Urine
For females
• Rinse area with soap and water
• Clean it with sterile gauze piece
• With both labia apart allow first few ml of urine
to drain
• Take mid stream clean catch urine
• This will prevent contamination
• Collect it into wide,sterile,leak proof
container
For males
• Wash hands and retract
prepuce before collecting
sample

34. • If it is not possible to
obtain urine, suprapubic
aspiration or
catheterization may be
used
• Catheterised urine
should not be used
ideally bcz of presence
of bacteria in urethra
• For that first apply
disinfectant over
infusion port and then
collect urine

35. Blood for serology
• Take proper precaution (gloves)
• Avoid contamination
• Palpate vein
• Apply disinfectant
• Use sterile needle and syringe
• Collect blood into plain
vacutte
• It will coagulate
• Centrifuge it at 1500-2000 rpm
for 5 mins
• Thus serum will be separated

37. Sputum
• Wide container of 50-100 ml capacity
• For M.TB two samples are collected
• 1st at on the spot and 2nd at next day
morning
• Morning sample is more reliable bcz of
colonization of bacteria in LRT at night
• Before this ask patient to gargle with
normal saline and take deep breath and
then take sample in one bout

38. • This will prevent contamination
• There should not be saliva or liquid
• If there are >25 epithelial cell per LPF,
sample is rejected as it shows
contamination
• It should be collected before antibiotic
treatment has started

48. Stool
• Collect it into wide mouth,clean,
sterile,leak proof container
• Label properly
• Min 5 gms is needed if solid stool
• And 2 ml if liquid stool
• It should not be contaminated with
urine
• If not possible to collect it as in
children, elderly, debilitated patients–
collect rectal swab

49. • Do not referigerate stool
• If delay in transport preserve it into
10% formalin, buffered glycerol saline

50. Rectal swab
• Take sterile swab
• Apply it in anal canal
• Rotate it for 10 seconds
• Avoid contact with skin
• Seal it directly into swab
container to prevent
contamination
• Transport immediately to lab
, if not possible,preserve at
4-6 degree centigrade

53. Procedure to collect CSF
• Collect only 3-5 ml into
a labeled sterile
container
• Removal of large volume
of CSF lead to
headache,
• The fluid to be
collected at the rate of
4-5 drops per second.

55. Preservation of CSF
• It is important when
there is delay in
transportation of
specimens to
Laboratory do not
keep in Refrigerator,
which tends to kill H.
Influenza
• If delay is
anticipated leave at
Room Temperature.

56. MYCOLOGY SAMPLES
• Clean site with 70% ethanol to help eliminate
surface contaminants. Using a scalpel, skin
scrapings should be made from the active
periphery of the lesion. For nails Scrapings
should be deep enough to assure acquiring
recently invaded tissue Submit scrapings in a
sterile Petri dish or container.
• Hair - Use forceps to pluck involved hairs
from the edges of the patches. Submit hair,
including shaft, in a sterile Petri dish or
container.

57. Water for bacteriology
• Water course or reservoir - collect from a
depth of at least 20 cm
• Dug well - do not allow the bottle to touch
the sides of the well

58. Specimen Transportation
•Necessary when specimens are collected outside
the testing laboratory
•Collection and transportation system
Sterile, self contained
Transport medium
Aerobic or anaerobic
•Specific environmental conditions for specific
specimens must be provided during transportation

59. Transportation of samples
• Stool, csf and sputum should be
transported at room temperature, not in
refrigerator
• Urine , swabs, skin samples,water & food
samples are transported asap at room
temp,but if it is not possible, preserve
them in refrigerator

60. Specimen Transportation
Examples of transport media
Transport media for stool specimens
Transport medium for viral pathogens: Virus Transport Medium (VTM)
Transport medium Use
Carry-Blair All enteric organisms
Stuart All enteric organisms
Amies All enteric organisms
Buffered glycerol saline All enteric organisms except
Vibrio and Campylobacter
Alkaline peptone water Vibrio
V-R fluid Vibrio

61. Specimen Transportation
Transport medium
A nutrient solution used to
maintain the viability of patient
specimens as they are being
carried the site of collection to
the laboratory for culture
Purpose:
 Keeps suspected
microorganisms alive
 Suppresses growth of
unwanted organisms.

62. Specimen Packaging
 Biological specimens are classified as dangerous
goods.
 International safety requirements and regulations
should be followed when shipping:
 National transport regulations
 International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
 International Air Transport Association (IATA)
 Rail and road traffic agencies
 Postal services.

63. Specimen Packaging
Specimen Packaging
• Category A: An infectious substance that if an
exposure occurs when transported is capable of
causing permanent disability, life threatening or
fatal disease in otherwise healthy humans.
 Infectious substance, affecting humans, UN 2814
 Infectious substance affecting animals only, UN 2900
• Category B: An infectious substance which does not
meet the criteria for inclusion in Category A UN 3373

64. Safe packaging
 All categories require triple packaging:
 Leak proof primary container (tube/vial
containing the specimen)
 Leak proof secondary container (holds more
than one primary container) absorbent material
added to absorb fluid in case of breakage.
Cushioning if more than one specimen.
 Rigid tertiary container (strengthened
cardboard or cool box)

65. Triple packaging

66. Triple packaging

67. REJECTION CRITERIA
 Based on specimen acceptance/rejection criteria.
 Documented and communicated to specimen
collection points.

68. REJECTION CRITERIA
• Leaking/broken container
• Insufficient amount
• Improper labelling
• More time lag between collection and
transport
• Improper transport media
• Improper transport temperature
• Hemolysed sample

69. Thank You