Anyone work in a plasma center?

deboraclark82 · Dec 24, 2010

I don't work at one but I know one person that works at one and another person who used to regularly donate at one.

The person who works at one is still in school and doesn't have any certs yet and gets to draw blood and do the patient intake assesment. They say they love it, they are always doing contest and give aways to the employees where they work. They seem to really enjoy it there and they are great a drawing blood from all the practice they get at work.

The down side? Well the person I know who went to donate regularly had a vein blown in their arm and the person drawing the blood continued the treatment until their arm bludged. It was bruised and swollen for days. They can not donate any more, where not paid for the donation that was made and they were chastised at the clinic because they demanded that the procedure be stopped once their arm began to become inflammed.

So it can be good and it can be bad. Depending on where you live depends on the cridentials needed to be able to work at one and depending on where you work will determine the atmosphere of your work enviroment. I suppose it's much like any other job, its all about the repore you have with the people you are working with.

You may also want to keep in mind that many of the people who donate do not do it to help out man kind. Much of them are homeless or poor and are doing it for the money. So good public works skills would come in handy. If you have expierence working with the general public then you should be prepared for working in a plasma clinic.

I don't know if this helps you but thats all I have to offer you as far as what I know about the places. I have never donated at one or worked at one personally, these are just the expirences I've been told by people that I know.

BettyBoop01 · Dec 24, 2010

Thank you for your input!

deboraclark82 · Dec 24, 2010

Your welcome

Sarah010101 · Dec 24, 2010

I hope you don't mind if i ask a quick question about this... you said people get PAID to donate?... Really?...

BettyBoop01 · Dec 24, 2010

I hope you don't mind if i ask a quick question about this... you said people get PAID to donate?... Really?...

In some parts of the country you get paid to donate plasma. I do wonder what kind of people this attracts. Not sure how much people make. Where I grew up you do it as a donation, no payment.

Aliakey · Dec 24, 2010

In my area (west Texas), the plasma donors are paid for their donations. I work in EMS, and ran on one person at a center who probably had a reaction to the sodium citrate used during apheresis. Anyway, he told me his friends also donate as a way to generate some income while a student at the University. Nice big, plump veins on a 20 year old male... luckily for me, also on the other arm, lol!

mappers · Dec 24, 2010

I worked at one before I was a nurse. Most people there are not nurses. We had one RN on site to do assessments and for any emergencies. Everyone else was trained by the company.

There were three areas at my place: "Reception" where you registered people, asked a bunch of screening questions and did a finger stick to test HCT and tP: "Donor Floor" which is where the donations took place; and "Plasma" where the bottles were processed. This person also handled shippng the bottles and the specemins for testing.

You had to be "certified" to work in these areas, but the certifications were done by the company and were meaningless anywhere else.

I was a manager there. I had to be certified in all areas, but mostly handled the shipping. I also did scheduling, payroll, ordering, paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. I enjoyed the actual parts of my job dealing with the donors and the plasma itself. It's probably closer to working in a lab than in a hospital though.