who draws your labs?

[GraceNotes]

Do you draw your own labs in your community clinic, or do you have an MA or phlebotomist? As lab orders increase, our small clinic is considering appointing one nurse specifically for labs (no other nursing duties) for an entire day, rotating days between nurses.

[lupin]

We have two CNAs with phlebotomy training do our labs and we also draw some labs ourselves depending on the amount of labs or if we are working up an STD pt.

[GraceNotes]

Thanks, lupin. We have one MA who can do labs, so in order to rotate lab staff a nurse was taken off the floor. In total, we had designated lab staff for only 4 days out of a 2-week trial period. Sounds like your clinic has good organization.

[lupin]

Not really this week, one was sick, the other was at FEMA training, and we were also down a nurse. But we made it through .

[tewdles, RN]

when I worked in community health we had a Medical Assistant who was assigned to the lab daily. She did all of the phlebotomy and the nurses helped if she had a difficult draw. This worked well for us and insured that all of the lab duties were carried out as needed. The MAs developed very good phlebotomy skills.