CNA! Should I get my Phlebotomy and EKG too? Please help before I waste money!

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Hello....

I am a working adult making the 30yr old career change! Yay! I will be taking my CNA State exam on August 10th and want to work in the hospital setting. I found a program that in one day I can get my EKG and Phlebotomy Certificate (not license), but I need to do 100 sticks before I send off for my license. Does this pretty much make me a PCT?

I live in Central Florida, where can I go to get the on-the-job training for this? Or trainging in general? All the jobs I see on the internet all want 6 months to a yr experience.

I have found Phlebotomy programs w/ license but they are 5 weeks, and expensive. Nor can I take that time off of work. I can moonlight late nights and weekends for my training.

I eventually will be going to school for my RN degree, but that is atleast 1-2 yr down the road.So, I want to get my foot in the door asap. I emailed schools and the Local Hospital Systems but everyone is giving me different advise. I am unsure of the correct path to take and I also don't want to waste too much money.

Thanks! :)

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Before signing up for any classes, I would wait to see if you are hired by a hospital first. Then see if the hospital will provide any of this training. It would be a waste of money at this time if you get a job in a nursing home because these skills aren't used in a nursing home. Your chances of getting a nursing home job outweigh your chances of starting out in a hospital, so wait to see where you get your job before spending any money.

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Specializes in Med/Surg/Pedi/Tele.

I work in a hospital and draw blood with no training. I wish I had taken a phlebotomy class.

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Specializes in Flight RN, Trauma1 CVICU STICU MICU CCU.

Several different issues here.

1. Don't waste the money on the ECG certification. You will probably not use it enough to justify the cost of the class and the skills that you learn in that class will deteriorate before you actually get a chance to utilize them in a work setting. If you want the skills to read the ECG, do some research on the internet and teach yourself how to read them. A great website for practice is skillstat.com. Now then, you should probably pick up a used nursing text, so that you can read about the different arrhythmias and understand what you are learning to identify. You probably don't even have to get a nursing text book, but a chapter on the heart which includes arrythmias will make learning to read the ECG much easier.

2. Phlebotomy is a great skill that can actually get your foot in the door, at a hospital. You could get a job at a blood bank to get your 6 months of experience and then apply to hospitals with your CNA and Phlebotomy license. This is something that sounds like a great way to skip the nursing home!

3. If you also get your EMT-Basic, you could work as a tech in the emergency department. With your EMT-B and CNA, it would actually make sense for you to take the ECG class because you actually would use the skills in the ER setting.

Hope this has been helpful for you, feel free to pm / email me with any questions :) Good luck with whatever you choose!

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