We Need Your Blood! Please Head Over to the Phlebotomy Lab

Surgical incision into a vein to obtain a blood sample is one of the routine procedures you will perform in your role as a phlebotomy technician. Your daily routine will consist primarily of performing venipunctures, or finger sticks, to collect capillary, venous and sometimes arterial blood samples from people of all ages. These blood specimens are collected into labeled blood collection tubes as ordered by a medical doctor, or other licensed health care practitioner.

What a Phlebotomist does

The Sisters of Providence put it so well in their recent phlebotomy job ad: "This type of interaction requires courtesy and tact when dealing with patients and their families, visitors, clients, hospital and/or laboratory employees; phlebotomy work requires providing direct patient care to pediatric, adolescent, young adult, adult and geriatric patients." 

The phlebotomist works under the employ and general supervision of a medical doctor, licensed healthcare practitioner, or laboratory supervisor, but at the same time, is expected to work independently when samples are drawn at remote locations, such as mobile blood vans. All phlebotomists are expected to know rules of proper medical charting and laboratory requisition slips, adhere to laboratory safety protocols and infection control and be able to explain the blood drawing procedure to the donor/patient.

Once the blood specimen has been obtained, documented, labeled, preserved and packaged for transport to a laboratory testing site they often must perform additional clerical duties related to the blood work and print and distribute specimen lab reports. At times they will also collect urine samples from adults or children for laboratory analysis and culturing if ordered by a doctor.

Drawing the Blood

To draw blood the phlebotomist must have orders from an appropriately authorized person before they can perform venipunctures or other tests on a patient. They then select appropriate needles and blood collection tubes for the test, estimates quantity of blood needed in relation to the tests ordered, assemble all necessary equipment, label tubes with the patient name, identification number, and address, and also...

• name and address of physician or legally authorized person ordering the test
• tests or assays requested
• time and date of specimen collection
• source of specimen, when appropriate
• clinical information, when appropriate

They then add the date, time and their initials and prepare the samples for storage and transportation. Sometimes they must respond to emergency beeper requests for specimen pick-up, or perform other tasks as requested by a doctor, such as...

• urine collection
• specimen processing
• sample analysis
• and creating reports