Reducing Escalation & Distress During Ped Blood Collection

Poke Pals is an adoption-enablement and clinical education initiative focused on pediatric blood collection.

We support comfort-first, pre-analytic readiness by integrating pediatric phlebotomy expertise with behavioral science — improving cooperation, first-attempt success, and staff confidence without slowing care.

When appropriate, this includes supporting minimally invasive collection methods and optimizing venipuncture readiness when necessary.

Who We Work With

Blood collection device companies
Diagnostics and laboratory innovation teams
Outpatient clinics serving pediatric and neurodivergent patients
Care teams supporting children with medical anxiety

The Problem

When pediatric patients escalate during blood collection:

Appointments run overtime
Staff feel pressured or unprepared
Repeat attempts increase
Families avoid future care

Most clinical training emphasizes technical skill, not nervous-system readiness — especially for anxious or neurodivergent children.

That gap costs time, trust, and outcomes — leading to longer appointments, staff exhaustion, and families avoiding care altogether.

Does Your Team Face These Challenges?

Appointments running overtime due to patient anxiety
Staff feeling unprepared to support neurodivergent patients
Procedures escalating to restraint or sedation
Families canceling or delaying necessary care
Staff burnout from repeated difficult interactions
Lack of standardized approaches for anxious or sensory-sensitive children

Your team may be clinically skilled — but without preparation and regulation strategies, even routine blood draws can fail.

That’s where adoption enablement makes the difference.

The CALM–EXPLAIN–INVOLVE Framework

Poke Pals trainings are grounded in a practical, nervous-system–aware framework that emphasizes:

Calm: adult regulation and environmental support
Explain: clear, developmentally appropriate procedural communication
Involve: meaningful child participation and choice

This approach reduces escalation and refusals without altering clinical protocols or slowing workflow.

A Practical Starting Point for Your Team

I offer focused, applied training designed to reduce escalation during procedures — without slowing care or requiring major workflow changes.

Pilot Training: Comfort-First Procedures

$499 | 2 Hours | Virtual or in person

This focused training helps teams:

Reduce escalation and refusals
Increase first-attempt success
Improve staff confidence and consistency
Adapt strategies to their specific clinical setting

This pilot is designed as a low-risk entry point, modeled after standard onboarding and staff development formats used in outpatient care.

For teams seeking deeper implementation, half-day and full-day training options are available.

Important Note

Poke Pals provides education, implementation support, and consultation — not medical treatment, therapy, or diagnosis.

Let’s Talk

No pressure. No obligation.
Just a brief conversation to see if this approach fits your team.

SCHEDULE A 15-MINUTE EXPLORATORY CALL

Poke Pals provides educational training, implementation support, and consultation — not medical treatment, therapy, or diagnosis.

No pressure. No obligation. Just a brief conversation to see if this fits your team.

Schedule a 15-Minute Exploratory Call

Testimonials

[I had the opportunity to work alongside Franchesca in a phlebotomy role and was able to observe first hand how well she works with patients of all demographics and backgrounds especially pediatric and neonatal patients and special needs patients of all ages. She is a very talented and highly skilled phlebotomist, and has a particular talent for making the otherwise unpleasant experience of blood draws a much more palatable and even positive experience for both the patient and their parents/guardians. I have had the chance to observe her work with so many patients who required special considerations to perform high quality blood draws while enhancing the patient's experience overall.

I particularly remember an encounter where a young adult patient with special needs arrived with his mother and a caretaker for routine blood work. Now this patient was non-verbal and very strong, and previously it had taken a significant amount of time (often around an hour) for myself and some of the other phlebotomists to work with him to allow us to draw his blood. However the first time Franchesca had the opportunity to work with him, she calmly worked with him at his own pace and quickly built a rapport with him and made him feel comfortable to the point where he immediately let her draw his blood. Her ability to build this rapport with her patients was one of the driving factors that made this encounter the smoothest and most efficient one this patient had ever had. His mother and his caretaker were blown away by how easy that experience was when Franchesca drew his bloodwork. There are many similar instances that come to my mind when considering how professional and effective Franchesca is at providing the highest quality of care for all her patients, but especially those young children and special needs patients who are unable to understand or are just plain scared to get their blood work done

John, UVA Medical Center