In many health-care settings, the medical assistant is responsible for collecting blood specimens from patients and even performs some testing in the waived category. In order to properly collect the specimens, you will need to review the circulatory system and the function of blood. You will be introduced in this chapter to venipuncture and capillary collection procedures, and you will learn the appropriate supplies and equipment needed to perform these procedures. You will also learn techniques for dealing with different types of patients and how to efficiently and effectively obtain blood samples. Additionally, you will receive instruction on the performance and screening of common blood tests.