Phlebotomy Certification?

SuzieVN · Mar 29, 2013

Would an IV certification suffice? It's probably two day, maybe a week at most. $1600 for venipuncture is nonsense. Your state has an awfully liberal IV policy for LPNs, BTW.

libran1984, ASN, RN · Mar 29, 2013

I hate these state to state regulations. I just recertified my PALS in 6 hours and expect my ACLS recert to be about the same. My IV certification IS my license and my phlebotomy skills are superb. I know BSN RNs and ADN RNs who barely scratched the surface of IV therapy or drawing blood bc so many schools consider it on the job training. Blah!

Sorry this wasn't very constructive.

SuzieVN · Mar 30, 2013

This was posted in another section, an RN that didn't feel competent with IVs. My argument is that it's a basic core skill of a nurse, she didn't seem to agree. I also made the point that an RN is IV certfied by getting a nurse license (even if she never laid eyes on an IV), whereas LPN have to prove their skill, and pass a theory test, to become IV certified, and at a lower level of scope than RNs. Shouldn't an RN have to be IV certified, by way of a certficate or skill test, also? Its' all so much nonsense, it's ludicrous. And from this OP says, $1600 for PHLEBOTOMY credentials? And as far as the state to state differences- in some all LPNs do is monitor sites, and DC perpiheral lines- in other, it's the other extreme, like WA and FL. Stop the madness? I doubt if it will ever stop.

mbschloss · Mar 30, 2013

I was one of those students who was constantly told by my nursing program that phlebotomy & IV certification would be on the job training with my facility of employment. Get out into the real world & get told I need those to make myself employable in a clinical setting. It's really frustrating. I can't find anything for IV certification our phlebotomy, except the 2 quarter $1600 phlebotomist program. I did find ACLS class for $255. But I haven't committed because I think that is really expensive for a 1 day course.

SuzieVN · Mar 30, 2013

Incredibly, online, I find no place listed for you to get IV certified. And this in a state with the most liberal IV scope of pratice for LPNs, that includes IV push meds with ACLS certification? This field gets more skewed, illogical, and nonsensical by the day. When I went to PN school, it was 'unheard' of that an LPN would ever have anything to do with IVs.

mbschloss · Mar 31, 2013

SuzieVN, as a new grad I was a little surprised to be told in a job interview at an urgent care clinic, that because they did not have an RN on staff, I would be required to have the phlebotomy/IV training. They required their LPNs to do all blood draws, create IV access/ administer fluids via IV as needed, & even perform some x-rays as they are not required to staff an x-ray tech.

SleeepyRN · Mar 31, 2013

This sounds like a place looking to save money by all means necessary. I'm seeing red flags.

SuzieVN · Mar 31, 2013

I'm seeing red flags in a state with liberal IV law for LPNs, with an apparent lack of access to IV certificate classes. What is up with that?

notmanydaysoff · Apr 2, 2013

mbschloss

I work in an urgent care and am IV/blood withdrawal, BLS, ACLS, and PLS certified.

The combined IV/BW course was about 40 hours +/- and cost about $450. Drawing blood is an everyday occurrence; IVs maybe 1 or 2 a month. What we do more often is catheterize. Now that's a skill I was totally green at and still don't feel confident 100% of the time doing.

Get your certificates and you'll be a more viable candidate. I spent the money after graduating to get the additional certs. If you want a decent job, make the investment. The urgent care job was my second job out of school. The first was doing flu-shot clinic for a company in AZ.

Your comment about them requiring nurses to do "some x-rays" surprises me. Taking x-rays is a specialty. Are these folks crazy? What in a nurse's training prepares you for doing this?

Billie Porter · Mar 4, 2020

I have been looking for a iv/bw combo course in Georgia. Any leads?