WOW! What An Experience!

It's three days since my phlebotomy practicum ended and I'm totally psyched to keep working in this field! I learned more in three weeks that I thought possible! I started off doing very little and ended up doing quite a bit. I did get my 100 venipunctures and 25 dermal sticks (finger sticks) in a relatively short time. Actually, my ending numbers were 175 and 40 respectively! I am quite proud of my work; I feel confident that I can be a great asset to any practice or hospital as a phlebotomist.

My next stop is certification; I'm turning in my application this morning along with my reference letter and the required $100. Then, I'll get an appointment to take the test in either Concord NH, Worcester/Springfield MA or Providence RI. You know I'm hoping for Worcester/Springfield! It's the closest site to my house.

It was a great three week experience. I can't say enough about the providers and staff at my site. Everyone was so helpful and encouraging!! Only two fainters the entire week and of course they weren't the little guys - both were men well over 6' who went "down like a ton of bricks" when I was done doing their blood draw. At least I didn't end up with the 6'2 guy that hit his head on the FLOOR requiring three stitches to close the gash in his head! That guy was with the other student. THAT in itself was an EXPERIENCE I do NOT want to go through again thank you VERY much!!!

I Think I'm in LOVE!!!

This week, I've been doing my phlebotomy practicum at a local family practice and boy, I think I'm in LOVE!! This job is such a challenge! Every day brings new skills, new experiences and new people! I haven't enjoyed anything as much as this in a very long time.

My first day, I "drew" 12 people successfully. Not too bad - I was pretty happy with that figure. Wednesday was slow - only 8. Thursday was interesting - I reached for gauze, the patient moved his arm and the needle fell out. Blood spurted across his lap (which made for cleaning up interesting!) and ran down from the hole in his arm. I do NOT need to say how many heart attacks I had when I EVER looked down and saw all that blood!! It was NOT pretty! Thank GOD he was good natured about the whole thing! I was drawing 5 tubes of blood and this happened on the 5th tube (OF COURSE IT DID!!)

Anyhow, today I learned how to do strep cultures (yes, I know - not phlebotomy related but it's a busy practice!) Interesting! I can hardly wait until LPN training starts in August! I'm excited and yep, I thinks I'm in LOVE with this job!!!