Learn more about the Phlebotomy applied certificate program and career as a phlebotomist.
Created: April 25, 2023
1. Do phlebotomists need to take safety precautions?
Phlebotomists wear personal protective equipment daily to protect themselves from
biohazardous materials they work with such as blood, urine, feces and cerebral spinal
fluid.
2. What duties do phlebotomists have within the lab/clinic environment?
- Perform capillary punctures and venipunctures to collect blood samples (e.g., insert needles).
- Perform data entry for patient demographics and test requests.
- Accession (log into the laboratory), centrifuge and aliquot samples for analysis by other laboratory professionals such as combined laboratory and x-ray technologists, medical laboratory assistants and medical laboratory technologists.
3. Is communication an important skill for phlebotomists?
Yes. Phlebotomists must communicate and interact professionally with patients, their families, combined laboratory and x-ray technologists, medical laboratory assistants and medical laboratory technologists, doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel on a daily basis.
4. What occurs in the average day for a phlebotomist at work?
- Wears personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect themselves when dealing with patients’ specimens (human and biohazard), chemicals, reagents and equipment.
- Makes critical decisions with accuracy.
- Maintains concentration for long periods of time in a rapidly changing environment.
- Requires good hand eye coordination.
- Sustains long periods of standing at analytical instruments and/or sitting at a microscope for the majority of an 8-hour shift.
- Communicates and interacts professionally with a variety of people including (but
not limited to):
- Combined laboratory and x-ray technologists
- Doctors
- Medical laboratory technologists (MLT)
- Medical laboratory assistants (MLA)
- Nurses
- Other phlebotomists
- Patients and their families