Call Us Today! (702) 254-7577
Northwest Career College is built on the foundations of family and the bonds that bind them. Dr. Kenny and his children have dedicated themselves to the mission of educating students and helping them to succeed in their chosen profession. Once you enter the doors of Northwest, you are family, through and through. Come join the Northwest Family where you’re connected for life.
Since 1997, thousands of students have walked through the doors of Northwest and have gone on to become successful Massage Therapists, Dental Assistants, Medical Assistants, Medical Insurance Specialists and Paralegals. Won’t you join the fine group of Northwest Alumni now serving the community in a variety of professions? Explore Northwest Career College and see where your future can lead. Come tour our campus today!
At Northwest Career College, ours is a student-centered philosophy where students come first. Our open door and open heart approach to education sets us apart from all others. It’s a feeling you get when you first walk in our doors.
Every Alumni is welcome back on the campus of Northwest Career College. We love to hear your successes and share in your life’s progress. The absolute best, though, is when you return to the classroom and speak with our current students. Alumni come-backs always give students that extra bit of inspiration to help them see that their goals are achievable and real.
Northwest Career College has created a beautiful and peaceful testing space for both our students and our visitors to enjoy. We know how important and stressful test taking can be and we want to make your time here a positive one with successful outcomes! Make sure to allow yourself some extra time to arrive early, get settled, grab a drink or a snack from the front and prepare to PASS your exam! We look forward to seeing you on campus and in our testing center. Best of luck to you!
Northwest Career College takes great pride in creating beautiful campus facilities for our students, staff and faculty. We invite all of you to visit our campus in person! But, until you get here, please enjoy a virtual tour of our buildings, program labs and learning centers. We look forward to seeing you on campus!
Modern phlebotomy is defined by the dictionary as, “The act or practice of opening a vein for letting or drawing blood as a therapeutic or diagnostic measure; venesection; bleeding.”
Phlebotomy’s history actually began as “bloodletting,” which was first practiced by the ancient Egyptians around 1000 BC. Because early Egyptian medicine combined observation and experimentation with magic and religion, it was believed that literally letting blood out of the body would cure diseases like acne or the plague, as removing the blood was considered to be a way to cast out evil spirits.
Bloodletting spread to the Greeks and the Romans and because of their belief in “humorism” the idea that the body has four humors, one of which is blood, and that imbalances in those humor caused illness
Recovered Greek and Roman medical texts led to the use of bleeding as a medical treatment in Europe in the Medieval era. The thought surrounding the practice was that blood was stagnant in the extremities, not flowing through the body as we know it does today, and thus would cause disease. Releasing the stagnant blood would, therefore, cure the patient by forcing the blood to move.
In the middle ages, bloodletting was not performed by physicians, but by “barber-surgeon”. These barber-surgeons also performed amputations and pulled teeth, which is why the red stripe on a barber pole is symbolic of the bloodletting portion of their profession while the white stripe represented tooth enamel.
Towards the end of the 16th century, surgery became more sophisticated as a number of fields of medicine began to advance and the job of bloodletting went back to trained physicians.
By the 1800’s the popularity of bloodletting was high. For the procedure, the physician would make an incision in veins or arteries. They also used ‘cupping’, a method of blistering the skin so blood could be released from the blisters.
Leeches were also used to suck up blood, as they can suck up ten times their body weight in blood. Bloodletting at the time was thought to cure conditions such as acne, asthma, cancer, cholera, coma, convulsions, diabetes, epilepsy and many more.
There is very little evidence that bloodletting was an effective treatment, outside of edge -cases, where the patient had high blood pressure and releasing some blood, may have helped, or if a person had a high blood-iron level, in which case blood-letting may have reduced it.
It is far more likely that bloodletting had a placebo effect, with those receiving the treatment simply believing it was making them feel better.
Of course, releasing too much blood from a body will do irreparable harm. An excellent example of a failed blood-letting is the death of George Washington.
In the days before his death, Washington had been complaining of a sore throat. When he woke one night and had difficulty breathing, several doctors were called, but before the doctor could arrive, Washington ordered estate overseer George Rawlins to remove nearly a pint of his blood.
When the doctors arrived, they continued the bloodletting (approximately five pints) was futile, and his condition deteriorated. Modern scientists have speculated that Washington probably had a simple throat infection, but that having been bled several times weakened him and depressed his immune system, making him more vulnerable to the fever that almost certainly eventually killed him.
Phlebotomy, as we know it today, has a different use. It not used to simply release blood from the body, but to acquire a sample of blood from a patient for diagnostic tests under a physician’s orders. Moreover, taking a blood sample is a quick, safe and virtually painless procedure, performed by a certified phlebotomist, in a healthcare environment, using sterile tools.
At Northwest Career College, we pride ourselves on providing one of the premier Phlebotomy Schools in Las Vegas. Our phlebotomy students have an 89% national exam pass rate and you can graduate in as little as three months. Our established seasoned instructors will take you through every aspect of Phlebotomy and Northwest offers day, afternoon and night classes to accommodate your busy Las Vegas work and family schedule. Call us today at (702) 403-1592 to speak to one of our admissions specialists about your new Phlebotomy career.
Written by: Jenette Ashcraft, N.C.M.A. Allied Health Department Director