I am about to go to school to train for Phlebotomy?

Question

are there any Phlebotomists out there that could give me a few pointers on Phlebotomy? I like to help people and hope that it will be something that I really want to do, Thanks for your advice.

Answer 1

Congratulations! It is a great job. I am a phlebotomist and love it. Talk to the customer to help keep their mind off of what you are about to do. It helps relax them especially if it their first time. Go to a school that actually practices on live patients not the fake arm connected to a bag of blood. That arm does not feel pain and you need to be able to find the site on a person with hard veins. The more practice you get the better you will get. Don't be afraid to volunteer to have your blood drawn in class the more you do the more you can learn. Watch the different techniques people use. Don't be nervous when you draw blood the patient can sense it and it will not be good act like you have been doing this for years even if you have only been doing it for a couple of days. When you go on your externship watch the person who has been there the longest and ask lots of questions. They are there to help you. Good luck and it is a great job. Don't think about the job as hurting somebody you could actually be helping save their life by drawing blood for a test. If they would never had the blood test done then something tragic could have happened. It kind of reminds me of a hairdresser talking to the patient and learning about them they will relax and usually they will be just fine.

Answer 2

I was a phlebotomist for years for a local blood bank. And pretty darn good at it too, if I say so myself. It can be a tricky thing to do, I think, for psychological reasons. You have to be sensitive enough to know what's going on with your patient, and if you're good you will know that they're feeling bad before they do. But you also have to be callous enough to hurt people regularly. If you do well, you can minimize the pain, but I know of nobody who can eliminate it. I'm too emotive, so hurting people proved too difficult to me in the long run... even though they asked me to.

There are lots of things that could be said for the technique of the actual procedure, but again I don't think that technique is the most important part. The most important part is developing a rapport with the patient. If they trust you, they will help you do what you need to do. They will let you do things that they are otherwise hesitant about (and lots of people have had bad experiences with bad phlebotomists). They will even let you hurt them over and over if necessary (and sometimes it is). And they'll come back again and ask for you to do it to them the next time.

How do you do this? Listen to them. Understand that they're nervous. Accomodate them as far as medically possible. I've had patents who wanted to use almost ridiculously inacessible veins. If you have an opinion give them a choice. I can recall saying, "I don't think I can do this, but I can try if you want." Some people wanted, some didn't. All appreciated the choice and the honesty.

Ok. I will say a FEW things about technique. You've heard the saying 'measure twice and cut once'? It applies very well here. Know where you're going, what your obstacles are going to be, and how you're going to overcome them. Mark things if you need to. Don't be afraid to start over from the very beginning (if I had a dollar for every time someone moved their arm after I sterilized it...). And explain it all. People can be very patient when they realize that you're trying NOT to hurt them!

That's all that comes to mind right now. Good luck with your studies. If you do it well, it can be very ingratiating. People will thank you. You will deserve it.