Have you recently decided to pursue a career in phlebotomy? You should feel confident knowing that you have chosen to enter a robust and recession-proof career field in the health care industry that gives you the opportunity to regularly help patients. As a phlebotomist, you will be diagnosing the health status of patients by drawing and analyzing blood samples. If you are serious about entering into this profession, it is important that you understand some of the typical procedures you will be performing on a regular basis on-the-job as a phlebotomist.
The most common procedure you will be able to complete routinely after your education and training is a venipuncture procedure. During the venipuncture procedure, you will insert a safety or butterfly needle into a patient’s vein and then you will attach the needle to tubes so that blood can be collected. It is important that you collect the proper amount of blood, apply proper pressure to the wound bandage it appropriately. Another very common procedure a phlebotomist will routine execute is a finger stick during which the index finger, heel or foot of a patient will be pricked so that blood can be collected and later analyzed. The phlebotomist will cover the wound with a cotton ball. As an aspiring phlebotomist, you can also expect to use arterial stick to measure blood gases or perform other tests. A phlebotomy technician must be extremely focused and organized when labeling blood samples so that they are assigned and can be identified with the correct patient. It could become very dangerous if any mistakes are made in the labeling process. Another very important task that a phlebotomist must regularly execute is properly completing all necessary paperwork pertaining to patients and samples. This is a very important administrative responsibility.
As you can see, phlebotomists are responsible for executing several very important procedures. Venipunctures and the finger stick are two routine procedures in phlebotomy used to collect and later analyze blood samples. In addition, properly labeling samples and completing all necessary paperwork accurately pertaining to patients and samples are important tasks that all phlebotomists must execute. The specific tasks that phlebotomists have to complete also vary depending on the work setting and employer.
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