Help!! Any Phelbotomist, Experience or non experience

klone, MSN, RN · Sep 11, 2011

15 weeks? Wow, that seems like a lot of classroom time for phlebotomy.

What are your ultimate career goals? Are you hoping to become a nurse eventually? If so, I would recommend taking a CNA class (which you can finish in a month or two) and then work as a CNA somewhere. IMO, that would provide much more valuable training and experience in nursing than being a phlebotomist.

Shonqueen1 · Sep 11, 2011

I think the 1st 5 weeks in a class and then the other weeks are working in a hospital getting hands on training. I wanted to start off as a CNA but some of the nursing homes around here is only paying 7 dollars when I'm am making 11 dollars an hour working in retail. I am waiting to get my ACT test done and take the teas test and try in get into a LPN class at my local community college that is what I want to do. When I start the phelbotomist class it will be over in early April and that will be great since one LPN deadline is in February, and the other two schools deadlines are in May for the Fall classes of 2012. I wouldn't mind doing the CNA classes but it will take as much money as the other classes. If I would have went through a nursing home to be a CNA then move to an LPN it would take up to 3 or more years here. Thank you

JDZ344 · Sep 11, 2011

Is there any reason you can't apply now for the LPN class? Do you need experience in the healthcare field first?

Isabelle49 · Sep 11, 2011

I don't understand why the class is 15 weeks long, but I think phlebotomists are certified now, so that may be the reason. I was a phlebotomist before becoming an RN, had OJT, and worked at a hospital. I loved the job. Getting to know so many people was wonderful, and for some of the inpatients you might be their only visitor besides their nurse and aide. I am contacting a local lab to see if they need a phlebotomist, since I am semi-retired and would love to go back to this job.

Shonqueen1 · Sep 11, 2011

Hey KatieP86, I have over 6 years of people skills but don't know how to really put a lot of people at ease but I think I could make it happen. The LPN programs are very competitive and you have to why until the deadline to see if you were selected. The programs are 1 time a year so I am getting things done now to get ready to turn it in. But the deadlines are not until next year. The phlebotomist class starts in January 2012 until April. So I would have enough time to finish this and try to get into an LPN program at the same time. I am trying to get phelbotmist training for free but if I pass up this free training just to get into the lpn and find out that I didn't make the LPN class then I would be mad and have to wait until 2013 to try all over again. I'm all ready getting an associates degree in Health care Administration in April of 2012 but I know that this degree isn't going to be any good right now so I am looking for a plan B. Thank you

Shonqueen1 · Sep 11, 2011

Hi Isabelle, yes phelbotomist have to sit now to get certified that my be a reason too. Congrats I know you have seen a lot through your career. I am so ready to start my career in the health care field because I like meeting new people also. I don't have a problem doing many of the thing that have to with this field so I am really ready to find out what I am really good at.

Kooky Korky, BSN, RN · Sep 11, 2011

Phlebotomists stick people with needles all day. they risk getting stuck with dirty needles and catching terminal illnesses, like AIDS and hepatitis. This doesn't happen often, but it could happen and you need to be aware of that.

Kids will scream in terror, sometimes patients will faint, they will call you Dracula. Kids might have to be restrained by other staff while you stick.

You must be exceedingly careful to not mix up specimens. you will probably have to do some computer work, you might have to re-stick people if specimens are lost, are too small, are hemolyzed, are otherwise not acceptable specimens.

It's a noble line of work. I hope you get everything you are hoping for.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Sep 11, 2011

just a quickie, op, since it looks like it's not a one-time typo: it's phlebotomist, not phelbotomist. pronounced fleb-ott-o-mist.

good luck, though!

Shonqueen1 · Sep 11, 2011

Thanks GrnTea for your correction, but I'm typing on a small cellular phone with small keys and I know how its pronounce. Thanks again

kalevra, BSN, RN · Sep 12, 2011

Hey Shonta

I am a Phlebotomist CPT-1 in California and it should not be 15 weeks long. My school was on the approved list on the California department of health services, an it was only 2 weeks of class time. It was like almost every day for 6 hours, then we went to our externship site for a week. Afterwards we send in all paper work to the state, wait almost 90 days and voila your license. I worked for an independent lab where we had contracts for specimen collection from LTC and state run Correstional Facilities.

In my opinion do not bother with a CPT license. Hospitals have their own lab people to come up stairs and draw blood from patients. You will not be using your phlebotomy skills as an RN, trust me your better off working as a CNA. The reason for that is because at least as a CNA you learn the most basic skills like learning how to change a bed, wipe butt, give baths etc etc. It may seem like tedious work but in reality its what your gonna be doing on day one of RN school. Better get used to the smell of feces in your nostrils now, so you can be the expert bed pan clean up guru in class.

Going to LPN school will allow you to enter into the 3 semester of my ADN program. Assuming you passed the NCLEX-LPN and you have your license. Phlebotomists dont get any perks like that at all. Getting into an LPN program is no issue, assuming your willing to shell out bucks to get into one of the private schools. I mean think about it you have all these people trying to get into an LPN program at a community college because it costs $5,000, but the private for profit school charges like $25,000. The price alone would prevent other people from going to the private for profit school.

Someone mentioned kids screaming and getting stuck with HIV. Well think about being an RN I guarantee you will run into screaming kids and risk communicable diseases. MRSA, VRE, ESBL, HEP-C, TB, etc. etc. are just some of the fun stuff you get to deal with....yay. Working in a lab running specimens is different that working in a hospital, we had women wearing long nails. Yeah I said it long nails, I'm talking daggers here, try spotting that in a hospital floor.

Shonqueen1 · Sep 12, 2011

Hey Kalevra thanks. I think why the program is 15 weeks is because it is a Patient care assistant and phlebotomist class at the same time. I am getting free training for the pct/phle class but really trying to get into the LPN in the summer so the deadline is February 2012 at my local community college. The cost is 8,000 dollars and a little higher but I don't think it is any private college near by. I called my local college and they say that the programs for LPN is 12 months and RN is 4 years is very competitive and that I have to score 17 on the ACT test or 67 or higher on the compass test. And of coures all nursing schools here people have to take the Teas V test to get ranked to get accepted into the program. So I am studying right now to get all my tests done to have it ready before the deadline. i A lot of people is telling me to go for the RN 4 but I really don't have the time to spare for the RN class due to have to work, and a family. I was reading that Lpns and RNs can draw blood but their they have more duties to deal with. I am thinking hard about it I have close to 3 months to have my mind really made up. If I do decide to go with patient care assistant/phlebotomist class I plan to work at a dialysis center and if I get accepted into the LPN program I plan to work there until I get the title as an LPN or if a company will hire me on my first semester of being in the LPN program must companies here will just have to try my best. But yeah I heard that being a CNA is a place to get your foot wet to see if you really want to continue to work in that field. I know how it is even if I haven't been in the shoes of a CNA so I put my hat up I have done a lot of volunteering in high school going to all different facilities that have to do with the Health care field. Nursing homes, hospitals just to name a few. Sorry if there is any misspelled words I hate typing on this phone because the format is all off.