Phlebotomy Certification Course + prereqs

Nursing Students General Students

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Hi everyone,

I'm taking a phlebotomy certification course this fall at my local community college. I'm wondering if its way too much to still take chemistry and Microbiology on top of that. Has anyone else on here done a similar schedule? Is working for about 20 hours a week too much on top of that?

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

I took Phlebotomy Externship along with Chem, Chem Lab & Statistics. It was definitely do-able. I wouldn't try to have another job on top of it all. The 20 hours at the hospital did cut in to my study time, but I stayed organized using my planner.

Good luck! I really enjoyed my Externship :)

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Why take a phlebotomy course? You will learn how to stick veins in nursing school and if somebody tells you s/he didn't get enough practice there, consider that 1) phlebotomy is a very minor task in most nursing jobs, 2) you will learn in your first job if you need it there, and 3) you could save your time and money for your science prereqs. No prospective employer of a new RN will think that a phleb certificate is going to make him/her so outstanding, either. Waste of time and money.

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I took A&P 2, Microbiology, and Chemistry all in one quarter. The workload was crazy, but I got As in all three. Just be prepared to study pretty much all the time.

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I had to learn what GrnTea said the hard way. It's true. Now, if you just need some random elective to fill in for your 4 year degree or something then that's cool. But it won't help you in nursing school and it won't help you land a job in anything other than phlebotomy (at least, this is my experience).

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I think this is a good program because I have yet to have a "real" job. I am nanny who works on my own schedule right now and taking prereqs to get into a direct entry NP program. I would like to have a job in healthcare so I am able to use letters of recommendation from a hospital and be able to put something on my resume. Nanny references are not going to get me into a school. I have heard CNA is a better route for this, but it also pays quite a bit less. In addition to school, I need to somehow be able to pay rent and such. I figured it can not actually hurt to be working in a health care setting taking blood to put on an application for schools. Is this true? Or does it hurt? I actually have no idea because I hear people say it is pointless, and then others will say its beneficial.

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