Rule No. 1: Ask Why — Not How — To Become A Phlebotomist

By Darryal Ray

Let’s see now … so you want to know how to become a phlebotomist? Maybe the first question you should be asking yourself is WHY you want to become a phlebotomist.

Although a phlebotomist technician salary isn’t bad (as much as $44,000 a year by one estimate), it’s not a job for the faint of heart. In fact, it’s probably easier to find out how to become a phlebotomist than to ask yourself why you want to become one.

Tracy Johnson, a 44-year-old phlebotomist at a 160-bed hospital in northern California, knows why she became one.

“It’s the people, the patients that I love most about this job,” she says. “I like seeing patients come from a bad situation. For instance, we had this kid — 19 years old — come in with a gunshot wound to his head. It was gang-related. We were trying to get this kid an organ. He’d been here two or three weeks, and one day, he opened his eyes! That’s a miracle! That’s the kind of stuff that’s so awesome to me. This kid was going to be carted out one day, and the next day, he opens his eyes! The patients are what I love most.”

Furthermore, Johnson says, anyone entering the profession should always place the patients’ care above all else. That’s a point she drills into the phlebotomists who train under her.

“I tell people that — no matter how busy you are — that patient in front of you is the most important person to you,” says Johnson, who has trained about 300 phlebotomists during her 21-year career. “ We have to check arm bands, dates, names to make sure we have the right patient. That’s the number one most important thing that you’ll ever do in this job – make sure that is the right patient you are drawing.”

Make no mistake — phlebotomy is a serious profession. Failure to follow proper procedures can not only result in false test results in the laboratory, but also injured patients or even death. “You have to be very meticulous,” says Johnson.

What’s more, the phlebotomist can face serious risks to their own health. “I’ve been spit on, bitten, kicked, called every name in the book,” says Johnson. “Those, of course, are the ones who come in on drugs who have overdosed and mental patients. That’s not so much fun.”

Combative patients, Johnson says, not only pose a danger to themselves, but also to the phlebotomist. “It’s very scary to be dealing with a patient that’s out of control because they might have hepatitis or they might have HIV, and if they move the wrong direction, you can stick yourself very easily and then you can contract it. That’s the scariest thing that I don’t like, and it happens all the time.”

Even when the patient is cooperative, the nature of the profession contains some inherent risks. “It is very hazardous,” says Johnson. “We have all the safety devices you can think of to try to prevent needle sticks. We have safety needles. We have everything we can to try to prevent needle sticks, but they still happen unfortunately. The biggest needle stick is the butterfly, and when we do get stuck, it’s usually with the butterfly because of the way you have to engage the safety device on it. You have to take it out of the patient’s arm, and then push the safety device over the needle, and that’s why it’s a little dangerous.”

That’s why Johnson admits she’s hard-nosed when it comes to safety procedures, and will not permit any of her phlebotomists to take shortcuts.

“If I catch somebody not doing it right, they are in big trouble — that’s their license on the line,” Johnson says. “We have to follow the rules. We make them follow the rules. They may do things their own way when I’m not looking, but when I or other supervisors are looking, it had better be done the correct and right way.”

Yet, for all the hazards, Johnson says she loves her profession and her patients, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it as a career to anyone studying how to become a phlebotomist. One only needs to be sure of why they want to do so.

“I love the patients, but not all of them are so nice,” she says. “So one of the difficult parts is learning how to deal with patients. One minute you have this sweet little ol’ lady and the next minute, you’re getting spit at by a drugged-out person. Every day is different, and that’s what I like about it. Everyday is different.”

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Phlebotomy Butterfly Needle Demonstration