Phlebotomy Trainin

[PreMedAdAG]

Hey guys.. does anyone know where I can get this done in Northern California for a reasonable price??
Thanks
Christine

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[ez073323]

Chris,

I think DVC offers a phelbotomy course... I will ask a friend that took one a while back and see where she got her training... Just do a couple of ride alongs and offer your arm for practice, and I am sure your medic will let your practice on him/her in return!

Brian

 

[PreMedAdAG]

you're gonna laugh.. i pass out when people poke me.. it's like i can watch and probably do it on other people, but I can't do it on myself... i had it done two weeks ago, yep.. white as a sheet... beautiful!

 

[Forensic Chick]

I went through Boston Reed and paid $290 for the two day, 16-hr course. We got 20 sticks in (somehow I ended up with 19 hematomas and my veins now hide when someone says "lab draw") - and overall it was a good class. They offer repeat classes for free, which is certainly a plus. The thing that worried me was that the instructor was a first year nursing student who took the class 6 months prior and had never worked as a phlebotomist -- but using the text and common sense, it all worked out well. In combination with an EMT cert, you can become an asset to an emergency department!

Good luck!

 

[Megalofyia]

Is it possible to clep out of classes like that if you have plenty of experience drawing blood.. though informal training. ?

 

[Blue_guitar9]

Try going to your local hospital and asking if you can volunteer/train. Thats what I did, granted I knew the lady that ran the lab but they might let you in anyway. You dont get an official certificate but you don't have to pay either. I also got a more one to one training w/ a lady who had been drawing blood for years. I say its worth a shot, especially if your only doing it for the experience anyway.

 

[Febrifuge]

If I'm being dense and missing something here, then I hope someone will step in, but...

...if I were a patient having a blood draw, and the phlebotomist asked, "hey, is it okay if this here volunteer sticks you while I supervise?" I would ask about the training the person has had so far. If the answer was, "well, this is his/her training," I would say "no [expletive] way."

If I was having a non-trained volunteer stick me, and I wasn't notified of their lack of training first, I'd sue the hospital.

Mind you, I am a volunteer myself. I don't even help people in and out of wheelchairs, because it's not in my training or my scope of quasi-practice. What local hospital trains people off the street in phlebotomy?

 

[PreMedAdAG]

you're telling me that you can't help people get out of their wheelchair?? Where the hell are you working... since when did helping someone stand up require "training". All volunteers should know how to move a patien in and out of moveable devices.. what do you there? Fold towels??

 

[EMPOWERurSELF!]

A couple years back I volunteered at several different nursing homes and wasn't allowed to assist with any type of transfer, even if it was a 2-man transfer. Maybe it differs from state to state or facility to facility, but volunteers could never do transfers due to liability, etc.

 

[PreMedAdAG]

Wow, I didn't know that.. I worked as a volunteer and helped people move all the time.. and then when i was doing my EMT training, they left me all by myself to transfer. Are you allowed to push gurneys and help people on and off of them? If not, what do you do as a volunteer?

 

[DrQuinn]

Originally posted by Febrifuge

If I was having a non-trained volunteer stick me, and I wasn't notified of their lack of training first, I'd sue the hospital.

Where do you draw the line? Do you ask the doctor in the ED how many sutures he's performed, and only allow them if they've done over 1000? Or your general surgeon's background has only allowed him 50 lap chole's, so you will pass on that surgery as well?

Q, DO

 

[EMPOWERurSELF!]

Wow, I didn't know that.. I worked as a volunteer and helped people move all the time.. and then when i was doing my EMT training, they left me all by myself to transfer. Are you allowed to push gurneys and help people on and off of them? If not, what do you do as a volunteer?

Actually this was back in the day when I was an OT major and did volunteer work/shadowing at a couple different nursing homes rather than at a hospital. I think it was because since I was a volunteer if I was involved in a transfer that resulted in a fall, etc. there'd be legal trouble. Now that I'm an employee at a hospital I regularly assist with transfers. Like I said , it probably differs from place to place.

 

[Blue_guitar9]

For me I actually attempted to draw blood on employees from the lab first. Then when I started on real patients they were told that I was a "newbie" but didnt seem to mind at all, sure some did and they politely passed. Many however were getting there PT checked and were seasoned vets at getting there blood drawn and seemed to actually enjoy the fact that I was more nervous than they were. Also there is very little chance of any complications due to a phlebotomy mistake, so i dont think there is a high likelyhood of anyone trying to sue.

 

[Febrifuge]

Originally posted by PreMedAdAG
you're telling me that you can't help people get out of their wheelchair?? Where the hell are you working... since when did helping someone stand up require "training". All volunteers should know how to move a patien in and out of moveable devices.. what do you there? Fold towels??

I realize you're kidding... but seriously. There are only so many Level I Trauma Centers in my state; we don't screw around. Yes, the body mechanics involved in lifting a person in and out of a wheelchair, onto a gurney, are different from taking a bag of groceries out of the family truckster. Yes, there's a rule about it.

Mostly it has to do with preventing me from a back injury, but partly it's to do with avoiding a lawsuit. If a 250-pound person with a bad ankle falls and now has a bump on the head, s/he could hypothetically sue the county, and win. My EMT training and the fact I'm not a total ***** would have no legal bearing on the case. I'm not there as a paid member of the care team; I'm not covered by the malpractice insurance. Simple as that.

And I can make a bed like a baaaaad mother-trucker.

 

[Febrifuge]

Originally posted by QuinnNSU
Where do you draw the line? Do you ask the doctor in the ED how many sutures he's performed, and only allow them if they've done over 1000? Or your general surgeon's background has only allowed him 50 lap chole's, so you will pass on that surgery as well?

Q, DO

Well, my example there hinges on two things: 1) the volunteer phlebotomist has no training at all, and 2) I as the patient haven't been told, I've just been stuck. So it's not really a question of where I draw the line between competent and trained professionals. Sorry to be a debate team geek, but you're making a false distinction.

But to more or less answer your question, the reason I don't have a problem with a surgeon who's done all of 2 lap chole's before mine is, I'd be putting my faith in the fact that in order to get a license to practice medicine, that doc has to have completed training at an accredited school. I mean, hey, that's why we're all here, right? We're on our way to becoming minimally competent and trustworthy... and going about it a certain way.

Even an MS-IV or MS-III who's stitching away on my superficial lac for some reason will have to have some preparation and supervision, to protect me as the patient. If I'm unconscious and the surgeon decides to let a student take the wheel, that's a decision that's made within a system that is designed to get my sleeping little self safely out of that OR again, in better shape than when I came in. I trust the system, which is why I don't trust Joe-Off-The-Street or Joe's friend who works in the lab; they're being presumptuous. Possibly negligent.

Medical education is going to put me so deep in the hole financially - I hope it's at least insuring a level of safety and competence for me as a patient. That's where I draw the line.