A day in the life of a Phlebotomist

A phlebtomist is someone who draws blood using various different sizes of needles.

It is a job that not a lot of people are comfortable doing. It isn't an easy thing sticking people with needles, knowing that what you do hurts people and the discomfort that comes along with it.

Every day is completely different, but i'll give a few examples of what I encounter on an average day.

Our hospital has many different clinics. We have an ER, in Inpatient Services where people have been admitted to the hospital for various reasons such as surgery, illness or mental disabilities such as Alzheimer's and other behavioral conditions. We also have 3 other clinics that have numerous doctors with various specialties.

In my lab, we have 4 phlebotomists upon which we have various schedules. Sometimes, with the small amount of phlebotomists we have, work gets incredibly busy and makes it difficult to get days off work because there typically isn't anyone to cover the shift. But I digress..

On a typical day i will stick between 15-30 people during my shift. That may not sound like a lot to some people, however, not only do I draw people's blood, it is also my responsibility to process each specimen and get it ready to be tested for whatever the doctor has requested.

These are some of the type of patients that I get;

• Pediatric- the youngest child I have drawn blood on was 7 days old.
• Geriatric- The oldest patient I have drawn blood on was 103 years old.
• IV drug users- These are my most difficult people to draw blood from. Most of them have destroyed their good veins and the ones they haven't destroyed as so tough, that sometimes needles will not penetrate the vein wall. Not only that, but other times, their veins are so weak from abuse,, that the pressure created from the blood test tubes collapse the vein, allowing no blood to come out.
• Psyche- Some people with mental and also physical disabilities such as Alzheimers, muscular dystrophie, para/quadriplegic. The list goes on. These people are also difficult to draw blood from as physical pain sometimes acts as a catalyst for physical outbursts. One patient I draw required 6 people to hold them down. 

I get any combinations of the above people, plus other various patients. Some are a lot more difficult then others and fortunately I have not had the pleasure of being physically or verbally abused, however, every time I walk into the room, I can already tell that the patient does not want me there. They make quips of "Oh, here comes the vampire!" which is really obnoxious. The first 2 or three times I heard it, I chuckled, but now I hear numerous times a day. 

Truth be told, some days I really dislike my job. Some days are definitely easy then others, but ya know, over all, at least I have a job. Maybe not the most glamorous job, but there are definitely worse jobs out there.