By Darryal Ray

After spending almost half her life in the profession and training 300 phlebotomists how to do it right, one can’t blame Tracy Johnson for taking phlebotomy training seriously. To her, becoming a phlebotomist is the smart thing to do.

“I was born to this,” says Johnson, who underwent her first phlebotomy training 21 years ago when she found herself a divorced mother of two with few skills other than waitressing. “I love it.”

Now 44 and working for a 160-bed teaching hospital in northern California, Johnson often oversees the training of students interested in becoming phlebotomists. Some are nursing students; others simply walk in off the street and ask for a job.

But don’t think for a minute that just anyone can be a phlebotomist — it takes a lot of work, and in California, you’ll have to pass a state-mandated test to earn your certification. Without it, you can’t work in phlebotomy.

It’s been that way for about six years now, ever since a phlebotomist was found reusing needles after soaking them in bleach. “The company she worked for only gave her five butterflies a day, and if you have 40 patients … so, she was putting them in bleach and reusing them,” Johnson recounted. “Once they caught her doing that, they started the phlebotomy program in California.”

As a result, every phlebotomist in California must undergo a comprehensive training program. Some get that training in special phlebotomy schools; others get it at teaching hospitals like the one where Johnson is employed.

“There are a lot of different schools that do schooling for phlebotomy. Unfortunately, it can cost $2,000 to $3,000 for students to go to one of those schools,” said Johnson. “But if they were to come to us at the hospital, what we do is have them sign a contract that they’ll work for us for one year and we pay them while they are training. Once they pass their phlebotomy certification, we give them a $3 an hour raise. So the difference between a school and us is that we’re going to pay them while they are learning, and then we give them a big raise. All they have to do is sign a contract saying they’ll work for us for a year, and they don’t have to pay a dime for anything other than their license. They don’t have to pay for any schooling.”

Among the requirements are 50 successful “sticks,” including five pediatric sticks, 10 finger sticks, 20 hours of online training and another 20 hours of lecture. At her hospital, aspiring phlebotomists must pass three tests administered by the facility — and score 75 or greater on each — before taking the state test.

After that, students get two chances to pass the state-mandated test. Fail the first one, and you must wait three months to take the second. “And if you fail the second one,” says Johnson, “that’s it — you’re done. You’re not going to be able to work as a phlebotomist.”

Those who do pass the state test must earn six hours of continuing education units (CEUs) every two years to maintain their license.

On average, says Johnson, the whole training process takes roughly three months.  “Some people fly through the training like it’s nothing at all, but it’s hard for other people — especially if they have no medical background because they have to learn the terminology and all,” says Johnson. “But we do have a lot of nursing students who work while they are going to school to become RNs (registered nurses), and it really helps them out a lot because they know the full process. They’ll work several years for us and then they go on to become an RN or whatever.”

The toughest part of the training for Johnson, she says, was the study of anatomy. “You have to learn about the heart, how it circulates, how the veins are taking the blood back to the heart and to the lungs to get oxygen,” she says. “The sticking was, for me, the easiest part.  … The hardest part was learning where the veins are vs. the arteries vs. the nerves — you don’t want to hit a nerve because you can really damage it. You can really hurt somebody.”

Even so, Johnson says she believes California’s certification requirement for phlebotomists is a good thing. “It’s valuable because it protects the patient,” she says. “You have to know the order of draw; otherwise, you can get some solution from one vial mixed up in another vial and get false results. If the phlebotomist does not draw the blood correctly, then the scientist has a bad specimen or it’s going to show bad results.”

“So it’s very, very important that there is some sort of training for phlebotomists because it’s a very, very hard job, and you have to know a lot,” she said. “You have to know what’s in the tubes, what kind of anti-coagulant is in the tubes, how you have to draw them, some have to be on ice, some doesn’t. There’s a lot of training. Even the nurses, the RNs, who have been through three or four years of schooling don’t understand why we must do things the way we do them.”

For those interested in becoming a phlebotomist, Johnson says it’s a good career move. “I would say it’s a good career, and there’s a lot of advancement,” she says. “It’s good money, and it’s a career. All you have to have is a high school diploma or GED. You don’t have to have any college education. So, it’s fairly easy to get into it because all you do have to have is your high school diploma. And you know that you are going to have a job for a long time because there’s always going to be sick people.”

Jobs for phlebotomists are not hard to find. Just a quick Internet search can return thousands of phlebotomist jobs from California to New York, Washington to Florida.

That’s because jobs for phlebotomists can be found at all kinds of places. At hospitals. At physician’s offices. At research labs. At blood plasma centers. At blood banks. At nursing homes. At home health care businesses.

One such Web search for “phlebotomist” on CareerBuilder.com recently returned more than 1,700 jobs, including this job posting for “Phlebotomist Candidate Bank” from the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle:

Position Overview

Our Laboratory Medicine – Phlebotomy Services has outstanding opportunities for temporary/hourly and classified staff Phlebotomists. Individuals in this position will perform phlebotomy on patients of all ages, prepare patient and collection equipment according to established procedures for blood collection, verify patient identity before performing collection and instruct patients on proper collection of urine specimens. Phlebotomists will also perform laboratory-testing procedures such as prothrombin time and whole blood glucose testing. Participating in problem solving, demonstrating support for policies, sharing expertise, and contributing to project work and committees is critical to being a successful member of the team. Inherent to success in this position is maintaining flexibility in the scheduling of hours and adhering to the commitment to serve the patients we serve. Perform other related duties as required.

Requirements/Qualifications

High school graduation AND completion of a phlebotomy course OR equivalent education/experience.

Legal Requirement: Obtain State of Washington certification as a Health Care Assistant Level A within sixty days of employment date.

The salary range? $2,312-$2,961 per month OR $12.30-$17.08 per hour.

Not bad, huh?

The job description is likely to vary slightly, depending on which kind of career setting you choose. For example, another Internet search returned a posting for a phlebotomist job with the Florida Blood Services also required driving the bloodmobile. Phlebotomists working in physician offices often handle other office duties during down time in the lab.

A posting for a “Donor Specialist” job with a nursing home, also in Florida, called not only for collecting blood and blood components, but also performing donor/patient suitability assessments, and noted that CPR training was also preferred.

That job, a fulltime position which noted that the candidate would work “variable hours on days and every other weekend.,” also raises another job perk for phelebotomists — flexible hours.

Phlebotomists training for jobs in hospitals will likely find themselves working in shift rotations. While the shifts are set according to patient and staff demand, phlebotomists who are working parents may find such scheduling beneficial to balancing their work/home life.

For others, the routine 9-to-5 hours of a medical lab or physician’s office are more attractive. Still others might prefer the part-time shifts of a nursing home or other facility.

No matter what the hours or where the location, jobs for phlebotomists are out there, and yours may only be a few clicks away.

Blood and needles — it’s what’s separates the phlebotomist from the rest of us fraidy cats. It’s why jobs for phlebotomists often go unfilled.

Let’s face it: Not everyone is cut out for those pointy needles and blood. But thank goodness there is SOMEONE out there willing to fill all those jobs for phlebotomists! Without them, our health system wouldn’t exist – and we may not either.

Phlebotomy technicians are usually among the first health care workers you’ll see whenever you get sick. They are the ones who ask you to roll up your sleeve or prick your finger. They are the ones who draw tube after tube of blood at the doctor’s request, the ones willing to risk our wrath to help us get well.

Still, theirs is a job not everyone wants. That much was obvious last month when the American Medical Association’s Health Care Careers e-Letter asked readers (and members of the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions’ listserve) how it could better “help college freshmen get a jump on their health care education.”

Not surprisingly, much of the feedback called for more rigorous math and science classes in middle school and high — a belief shared by virtually all in the health professions. But there were other responses that may not only surprise you, but also seem to indicate a growing need for allied health care workers like phlebotomists.

For example, one respondent complained that most high school students interested in health careers focus mainly on becoming pediatricians or nurses. “High school instructors would be advised to offer an objective overview of all opportunities in health care, rather than just emphasizing physicians and nurses,” the HCC e-Letter reported.

Another respondent recommended that high school students take care course that would cover first aid and preventive medicine for adults and children, basic lab tests and what is normal (such as HDL, LDL and Triglycerides), how to give a shot, take blood pressure and even change IV bags since home care is becoming more prevalent. “Even if the student does not pursue a career in health care, these skills will help them better handle situations that life may present,” said the reader.

Still another respondent, a faculty director of a health professions advising office, went even further, saying that for-credit medical careers “discovery course” at participating high schools through a local community college. Among the “substantial clinical opportunities” for these high schoolers? Learning phlebotomy with a practice arm!

“We like the idea of graduating students having some patient care experience in a real-world setting prior to beginning their formal educations as medical care providers,” the e-Letter reported the respondent as saying. “Very basic patient care skills, such as how to do vital signs, etc. I am amazed at how many students enroll in an (nursing) program and find that they are uncomfortable touching people as caregivers.”

Quite simply, phlebotomy could be just the thing to weed out aspiring lab techs, nurses and doctors who may not realize until much later that needles and blood aren’t for them.

“I see students with a vast array of skills and expectations who come to the college with the dream of becoming a health care professional,” said one dean of allied health programs. “Too often, they are unsuccessful due to their inability to meet the rigor of the requirements for the program. … Our phlebotomy program can be completed in two semesters with a three-week clinical at a hospital. I have had many pre-nursing students start on this path and have observed their interest levels increase dramatically regarding health care. Conversely, they may decide that working with patients or handling body fluids is not a match for them, so their nursing program spot may go to another, more interested student.”

Search terms: jobs for phlebotomists, phlebotomy jobs, what does a phlebotomist do, phlebotomy job description

“What is the difference between phlebotomy technicians and phlebotomists” is a common question among people who are thinking about entering the field of phlebotomy. But are they really separate careers and if so, what are the differences?

The short and quick answer to this question is “there is no difference between phlebotomy technicians and phlebotomists”. They are one in the same job within this particular medical field.

A follow-up question might be “what is the difference between a phlebotomy technician and a medical lab technician”. Or asked in another way “is a phlebotomist the same as a medical lab tech”. The answer is “absolutely not”.

Medical lab techs, also known as Clinical Lab Technicians, work in a lab testing blood samples and other materials. They do not perform the venipunctures (blood draws) that the phlebotomists do.

Another difference is in the area of education. Lab techs typically have a 4-year college degree whereas phlebotomists training is readily available locally and may involve only taking a few courses. (Look for more information on phlebotomist training courses coming soon.)

Leave a comment or contact us if you still have questions about the difference between phlebotomy technicians and phlebotomists or medical lab technicians.