Can I get around this in the XML?

Like this?

<default type="fieldvalue" field="STD_Test_Method__c" enclosevalueinquotes="true">      <values>

          <value="Blood Test: Lab send-off" />

          <value="Visual Inspection" />

     </values>

</default>

There is a way to do this, but the node approach you suggested does not currently work, although it makes sense and will probably work in the future if we implement support for Multiple Specified Values for Create new row defaults.

For Multi-Select Picklist fields, you can set multiple default values by using “Content: Single specified value” and then for “Value”, separate the desired values with a semicolon, like this:

Blood Test: Lab send-off;Visual Inspection

Sweet. Thanks, Zach