Phlebotomy is the science of drawing blood for the purpose of diagnosing illness, but did you know that with the proper phlebotomy training, you can have a range of careers to choose from? Let’s have a look at 4 of the most popular ones here. We’ll also look at the subtle differences that exist between them for you as a student of phlebotomy to know what skills and abilities you need to have.
- Phlebotomy Technician
This is the most common one, and it involves the actual drawing of blood and blood packaging for analysis. As a phlebotomy technician, there are some abilities of skills that you need to have. You need to have great interpersonal skills – you are poking needles into people all the time and you need to be able to take their minds off that. You also need to have great hand-eye co-ordination – you can never miss a vein. Of course you cannot to be queasy about needles. Once the blood has been drawn, you need to know what to do with it so an analytical mind is critical. You must also be very organized both in your mind and in your work area – you can never get blood samples mixed up.
- Laboratory Technician
This is the person who actually does all the scientific tests on drawn blood. If you choose this, you need to know how to test for bacteria, viruses, autoimmune diseases and all other possibilities depending on the patient’s symptoms. You need to have a great eye for detail as well as an explorative mind. You need to have a steady hand as many times, you’re handling small amounts of blood. You might also be needed to analyze cell tissue and other bodily fluids so you should be familiar with these areas. Of course you must also know what chemicals they need to use to test for certain bacteria or viruses in a blood sample.
- Blood Bank Technician
If you go this route, you will be indispensable in the lab for one single reason: you know a little bit of everything, so you always have something to do. You can draw blood, you can greet patients. You can enter records and you can take care of all other clerical duties in the lab. Your phlebotomy training will probably be boosted by people and IT skills that you may have acquired in another line of work.
- Blood Bank Manager
As you can imagine, in this capacity, you will be running the hospital blood bank. You are in charge of all staff as well as procedure and maintaining standards. You most likely report to someone very high in the hospital organizational chart, and the whole hospital relies on you to provide clean, safe blood all the time. You will need to have managerial skills as well and know as much as you can about blood and the different procedures that are performed on it.
All of these are good areas of phlebotomy to work in – hospitals will always need staff in all of them. Depending on exactly which career you want to end up in, you will have to choose the relevant phlebotomy training.
Related Articles: