What is a Phlebotomist?

Patients ask me all the time: “You’re a Flee-bot-o-mist?” as they are trying to read my title on my  badge. I can’t help but reply: “Yes, I’m a phlebotomist. It’s greek for ‘vampire’ ”.  It’s a good ice-breaker and you get the patient to laugh.

It also gets them thinking: ‘Well, what is a phlebotomist?’ and that’s very important. Not many people realize a phlebotomist is more than just a person with a needle in their hand (or fangs for teeth…see what I did there?).

What Does a Phlebotomist Really Do?

A phlebotomist is an individual who practices the art of phlebotomy or ‘the incision of a vein for blood letting’ (Garza, Becan-McBride). Sounds pretty cool, huh?

That’s because the Egyptians began performing blood letting nearly 3000 years ago and it has evolved into phlebotomy since then. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think ancient Egypt is cool.

A phlebotomist’ sole responsibility is to collect blood samples. We also, provide high standards of patient care, excellent customer service, communicate with providers, and interact with the rest of the hospital staff.

We get to see everything from healthy patients to the patients coming into the Emergency Room under a Code Trauma.

Read More: Why Phlebotomy is a Great Starting Point for a Medical Career

Start Your Journey at Northwest Career College

Here at Northwest Career College Phlebotomy Certification Program in Las Vegas, you’ll become an RPT ready to tackle the everything you will get to see working in a hospital. Let’s get started. Call today to schedule your tour and meet our fabulous team.

Sources:

• Gerry Greenstone, MD. The history of bloodletting. BCMJ, Vol. 52, No. 1, January, February, 2010, page(s) 12-14 — Premise
• Garza, Diana, and Kathleen Becan-McBride. Phlebotomy Handbook: Blood Specimen Collection from Basic to Advanced. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2010. Print.