In medicine, venepuncture, venopuncture or venipuncture is the process of obtaining intravenous access for the purpose of intravenous therapy

Intravenous therapy

Intravenous therapy or IV therapy is the infusion of liquid substances directly into a vein. The word intravenous simply means "within a vein". Therapies administered intravenously are often called specialty pharmaceuticals...

 or for blood sampling of venous

Vein

In the circulatory system, veins are blood vessels that carry blood towards the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenated blood to the heart...

 blood

Blood

Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....

. This procedure is performed by medical laboratory scientists, medical practitioners

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

, some EMTs, paramedics, phlebotomist

Phlebotomist

Phlebotomists are individuals trained to draw blood from a live person or animal.Phlebotomists collect blood primarily by performing venipuncture and, for collection of minute quantities of blood, fingersticks. Blood may be collected from infants by means of a heel stick...

s, dialysis technicians and other nursing staff. Venepuncture is one of the most routinely performed invasive procedures and is carried out for two reasons, to obtain blood for diagnostic purposes or to monitor levels of blood components (Lavery & Ingram 2005).
Blood analysis is one of the most important diagnostic tools available to clinicians within healthcare.
Its data is relied upon in the clinical setting for interpretation of a myriad of clinical signs and symptoms and developing skills in venepuncture can facilitate holistic and timely
treatment.

Blood is most commonly obtained from the median cubital vein

Median cubital vein

In human anatomy, the median cubital vein is a superficial vein of the upper limb. It connects the basilic and cephalic vein and is often used for venipuncture . It lies in the cubital fossa superficial to the bicipital aponeurosis.There exists a fair amount of variation of the median cubital vein...

, which lies within the cubital fossa anterior to the elbow.