What is Phlebotomy? The role in AID
Phlebotomy is the practice of drawing blood from patients, usually for diagnostic purposes. Professionals that do this are called phlebotomists or phlebotomy technicians. The career of phlebotomy often does involve the subsequent testing of the blood, the analysis of the test results, or other blood work activities, though some amount of it may occur in certain job positions. Those duties are generally performed by specially medically and diagnostically trained lab personnel. The job of the phlebotomist is just to draw the blood initially, store it, and forward it on to the medical facilities (usually labs) that will be working with it.
What is the Work and Work Environment of a Phlebotomist?
Phlebotomists work in hospitals, private doctor practices, mobile medical units, at medical labs, clinics, and continuing care facilities. In other words, these professionals are needed anywhere that blood is drawn.
One of the main ways that phlebotomists draw blood is venipuncture. This involves drawing blood directly from veins (i.e. intravenously) with various types of equipment, such as vacuum tube and hypodermic needle systems, (often called by their brand name Vacutainers).
Also used is equipment for drawing very small amounts of blood such as finger sticks, and, for use with infants, heel sticks. The latter are necessary because infants’ fingers are too delicate for blood to be drawn from them and their heels represent a more robust and also convenient access point from which to draw blood.
Education and Certification
So Phlebotomists are “blood drawers.” That seems simple enough, but it must be done right in order to be effectively done and safe for patients, lab personnel, and the phlebotomists themselves. For this reason, a number of different national organizations give certification exams that are intended to prove that a phlebotomist has the necessary background knowledge and skills to perform the job competently. After, blood is an important substance and has to be handled right. Mishandling of blood could spread disease, make blood samples intended for testing unusable because they are impure, and result in expensive errors or damage to professional reputations.
That said, only two US states – Louisiana and California – actually require phlebotomy certification in a legal sense. This certification goes along with a licensure in phlebotomy. In these states, you must get a phlebotomy certification in order to even practice this profession. In the other 48 states, however, certification is considered optional.
The word optional here may be something of a misnomer. The reality is that employers are increasingly wishing to hire only certified Phlebotomists. Thus certification could be considered required in professional rather than a legal sense. To understand why this is the case, put yourself in the position of an employer – would you want to hire someone to do the sensitive work of drawing and storing blood if you had no way other than their word of telling whether they knew what they were doing?
The First Step – Training
The first step to phlebotomy certification is to get training. Phlebotomy training programs are usually comparatively short. They tend to range from around two months to one year in length. They are often taught are career or vocational schools and community colleges. These courses go in depth into blood drawing techniques and also often cover basic anatomy and other medical fundamentals. Try to find a school that is accredited by The National Accrediting Agency for Clinical and Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS) to teach phlebotomy or some other well known accrediting agency – accredited phlebotomy certification schools are the most well regarded in the field and often offer the best education.
Taking a Certification Exam
After training is complete, the nest step is simply to find a well regarded certification organization and take a phlebotomy certification exam. This usually involves registering in advance, paying a fee, and then showing up at a local testing center to take the test. As mentioned above there are a number of different professional or trade organizations that give phlebotomy certification exams. Here’s a list of some of them:
American Medical Technologists (AMT)
The American Society for Clinical Pathology’s Board of Certification (ASCP-BOC)
The American Credentialing Agency (ACA)
The National Center for Competency Testing (NCCT)
The National Health Career Association (NHA)
The American Association of Medical Assistants (AAMA)
The exams offered by these organizations, when successfully completed, result in the test taker being awarded a specific certification title. For instance the American Medical Technologists (AMT) organization awards a student who has passed their certification exam the title of Registered Phlebotomy Technician (RPT). This is a well respected certification that is acceptable proof of competence by most employers in most states.
Another certification title that is well known in the health industry is the National Certified Phlebotomy Technician title. This is awarded to individuals who have passed the phlebotomy certification exam given by the National Center for Competency Testing (NCCT).
These exams generally consist of sets of questions for which there are various preparation materials. You may for example want to try taking a phlebotomy certification practice test or use phlebotomy certification study guides. The educational program in which you are enrolled may also be able to give you information about these exams and help you to prepare for them.
Costs
The cost of the entire process of getting certified as a phlebotomy technician would include the educational costs as well as the exam fee. Fees vary depending on the school but may cost as little as several hundred dollars for shorter programs to several thousand for longer and more extensive ones. There may be extra fees for lab materials and for clinical experience portions of phlebotomy educational programs. The costs for taking certification exams often have fees of $100 or more associated with them.
Online Courses
There are indeed online phlebotomy technician training courses. But bear in mind that a large part of phlebotomy is practical – it involves actually getting practice in drawing blood from patients, performing proper storage and handling of blood taken, and in learning various medical and first aid type procedures. So while the classroom portion can possibly be completed online, you will most probably need to supplement this with some sort of hands on training. It is also best if phlebotomy educational programs are accredited by the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical and Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS) as noted above, and many online programs may not be accredited.
Salary
The salary that you can expect as certified phlebotomist increases somewhat with experience. To start you can expect to earn somewhere between $18k and $30 annually while some phlebotomists with years of experience and seniority may make as much as $40 k annually.
Becoming a certified phlebotomy technician is attractive because it doesn’t take as long as some other medical or allied health fields to get into, is fairly financially rewarding, and enables an individual to be an important part of the hospital team. People who pursue this career should think in terms of getting certified whether or not it is required by their state. Certification proves you are qualified and will increase the prospect of your getting hired.
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