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Is phlebotomy a hard job?
What's so hard about doing this job? #phlebotomy #hard-job
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Davis’s Answer
phlebotomists are the technicians who draw blood for testing purposes, or for blood banking and use in surgery. Phlebotomy is one of the easiest health-care professions to enter, with minimal training and certification requirements.
Phlebotomists must be licensed to practice in California, but in most states licensing is not required and certification is voluntary. However, certification demonstrates both professionalism and a demonstrated competency in the field, and merits preferential hiring or higher wages from many employers. Certification is available from several organizations, including the National Phlebotomy Association, the American Society for Clinical Pathology and American Medical Technologists. Prerequisites are different for each organization and may include formal classroom instruction, jobsite training or a combination of training in a related field with hands-on experience. Usually, candidates must document at least 100 successful vein and skin punctures.
Training for phlebotomists is brief and usually practical. A high school diploma or equivalent is the usual qualification. Community and vocational colleges offer certificate programs ranging from several weeks to a few months in length, and some clinics or hospitals offer training on the job. Phlebotomists must understand the mechanics of drawing blood samples from a vein or smaller smears from a skin puncture. They must also clearly understand how to avoid contaminating samples, and maintain them at safe storage temperatures. Blood and needles are potential biohazards and must be handled appropriately to ensure the patients' and phlebotomists' safety.
Phlebotomists must be licensed to practice in California, but in most states licensing is not required and certification is voluntary. However, certification demonstrates both professionalism and a demonstrated competency in the field, and merits preferential hiring or higher wages from many employers. Certification is available from several organizations, including the National Phlebotomy Association, the American Society for Clinical Pathology and American Medical Technologists. Prerequisites are different for each organization and may include formal classroom instruction, jobsite training or a combination of training in a related field with hands-on experience. Usually, candidates must document at least 100 successful vein and skin punctures.
Training for phlebotomists is brief and usually practical. A high school diploma or equivalent is the usual qualification. Community and vocational colleges offer certificate programs ranging from several weeks to a few months in length, and some clinics or hospitals offer training on the job. Phlebotomists must understand the mechanics of drawing blood samples from a vein or smaller smears from a skin puncture. They must also clearly understand how to avoid contaminating samples, and maintain them at safe storage temperatures. Blood and needles are potential biohazards and must be handled appropriately to ensure the patients' and phlebotomists' safety.
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Justin’s Answer
I recently obtained my phlebotomy license and so I have not yet worked as a phlebotomist. However, during my externship, I experienced few difficulties. My biggest difficulty was finding the vein for this one student who was infamous for having hard veins. Even the instructors struggled a little to find the veins. However, I highly recommend working with those students because although it makes it a lot harder to complete your externship, you are gaining important experience and skills to find difficult veins.
If you haven't become a phlebotomist yet, the hardest thing there is studying for the NCCT exam. Even then, the exam isn't actually hard. But it's not hard as long as you make sure to study. For me, I did TONS of practice questions. When I mean tons, I mean that I did thousands of practice questions a week before the exam. I am also including that I did not pay attention fully to the lectures and so I had to learn everything the week before and memorize them. Don't do what I did but make sure to study a lot so that the exam is easy to complete.
If you are a student, phlebotomy was not exactly time-consuming. It was quite tiring after the labs but they weren't too bad. While I was doing an accelerated phlebotomy program, I was also a full-time college student. It wasn't too bad to handle as long as you don't take a ton of super hard and time-consuming courses all at once while doing phlebotomy.
Suggestions: Learn to manage your time and choose classes that you know you can handle. Make sure to know your limits so that you know how much you need to study before the NCCT exam. If you are still confused, ask lots of specific questions. Advocate for yourself so that you get the things that you need.
If you haven't become a phlebotomist yet, the hardest thing there is studying for the NCCT exam. Even then, the exam isn't actually hard. But it's not hard as long as you make sure to study. For me, I did TONS of practice questions. When I mean tons, I mean that I did thousands of practice questions a week before the exam. I am also including that I did not pay attention fully to the lectures and so I had to learn everything the week before and memorize them. Don't do what I did but make sure to study a lot so that the exam is easy to complete.
If you are a student, phlebotomy was not exactly time-consuming. It was quite tiring after the labs but they weren't too bad. While I was doing an accelerated phlebotomy program, I was also a full-time college student. It wasn't too bad to handle as long as you don't take a ton of super hard and time-consuming courses all at once while doing phlebotomy.
Justin recommends the following next steps:
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Estelle’s Answer
Just like with any job, sometimes it's easy, and sometimes it's very challenging. Some patients are well and have great veins, and some are ill or dehydrated and more difficult to draw. You need to be calm and comforting. As you get better and better at drawing blood, your confidence will build, and patients will notice. You also need to be organized. Drawing blood, labeling it, and getting it to the lab is critical business in medicine, so take your job seriously, and you will be great!
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Kayla’s Answer
I think the hardest part is learning to cope with the things that relate to our position, but we have no control over. Billing issues, system errors, procedural issues are all problems that we basically just forward along. Our feedback seems to be rarely valued despite our role being a direct link between provider and patient.
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Alicia’s Answer
Hi Jessica,
I am not a phlebotomist but I currently work as a medical assistant and am phlebotomy trained. It really is all about practice. It’s not very technically difficult to draw blood but practice makes you more efficient and faster. If you’re looking at phlebotomy for pre-health reasons, I would recommend pursuing something more broad like cna or medical assistant because you’ll be able to do much more and interact with patients in a variety of different ways.
I am not a phlebotomist but I currently work as a medical assistant and am phlebotomy trained. It really is all about practice. It’s not very technically difficult to draw blood but practice makes you more efficient and faster. If you’re looking at phlebotomy for pre-health reasons, I would recommend pursuing something more broad like cna or medical assistant because you’ll be able to do much more and interact with patients in a variety of different ways.
Updated
Elizabeth’s Answer
Hello, I have been a phlebotomist since 2020. I can definitely tell you that it may be challenging in some aspects, but so long as you have confidence in your work and maintain a positive mindset each time you go to a patient and never get discouraged as everyone has their bad days and every patient is different.