These blood tests are extremely important in the accurate diagnosis of a patient’s condition. Blood tests are also used to monitor a patient’s medication and for determining a patient’s blood type. Blood typing is another very important test. If a patient needs a blood transfusion, he can only receive blood that is compatible with his type. Therefore, blood typing must be accurate.

There are several circumstances that can cause inaccurate test results. The phlebotomist needs to know what these circumstances are and how to prevent them from occurring. For these reasons, certified phlebotomy schools are becoming increasingly important in the health care industry.

Every hospital must have phlebotomists because nearly every diagnosis involves a blood specimen.

The main subjects that a phlebotomist will study include:

• Anatomy
• Physiology of circulation
• Safety
• Biology
• Phlebotomy techniques

Phlebotomy courses offer students the knowledge necessary for collecting adequate blood samples for testing. Today, becoming a phlebotomist is easier than ever because you can take your classes online or at a brick-and-mortar school. You need to choose a school that integrates well with your current schedule.

Self-motivated individuals are ideal for online classes; however, individuals who have difficulty motivating themselves may want to consider a brick-and-mortar school.

1. Choose a Phlebotomy School that is Accredited

The Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) only recognizes the best phlebotomy certification schools. If you choose to enroll in a school that the CLSI does not recognize, you will be unable to practice phlebotomy following graduation. In order to obtain employment, you will be required to attain a certificate from an institution that is recognized.

The CLSI was formerly known as the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS). It is a non-profit, educational organization that sets health care standards worldwide.

The goal of these standards is to:

• Ensure the safety of patients and health care workers
• Improve the health care services patients receive and improve patient testing techniques

2. Comprehensive Curriculum

Make sure that the school you choose offers a high quality phlebotomy curriculum with additional career resources.

You need to find a school that not only offers you training, but also teaches you how to protect yourself when dealing with biohazardous materials. The school you choose must teach you how to handle various patient situations.

3. Job Placement Assistance Following Graduation

The majority of schools will help their students find phlebotomy positions after graduation. However, when choosing your school, take it one-step further and try to find a school that offers its students a career department. Schools that have career departments tend to find positions for their graduates quicker.

Not only that, but a career department will also assist you in writing an effective resume.

4. Enroll in Courses that Match Your Background

Phlebotomy courses can be taken by anyone interested in pursuing a career in this field. Therefore, if you already have a medical background, you may not need to go through every unit of the course. Some units are shared among various medical professions. For example, if you have already taken an anatomy course, you may not have to take it again. If this is the case, your phlebotomy course will be less expensive and shorter.

5. Program & Certification Costs

To be considered for enrollment and graduation, all your fees must be paid in full. Each college charges different fees for its phlebotomy program. When you are paying your tuition fee, you need to inquire as to whether that fee includes your study materials and books. You may be required to pay another fee for those services.

The average cost of a phlebotomy program ranges from $600 to $2,500. If you are attending a college, you will be charged according to the number of credit hours you need to take. A phlebotomy certificate is usually the least expensive route to become a phlebotomist. However, to obtain a degree in phlebotomy you need to attend a community college.

The cost of your state-certification exam will vary, depending on which state is administering the test. The average cost ranges from $50 to $75, depending. You can contact your local state department to inquire about costs.

6. Phlebotomy Schools & Financial Aid

The majority of phlebotomy colleges will qualify to receive financial aid from the state and/or other lending sources. If you are having difficulty meeting the program budget, you should consider applying for financial aid. You need to check the options for the college you would like to attend.

You can find government grant information at the Federal Student Aid site located at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/.

7. A Quality Education

The quality of your education will determine whether you are successful in your search for employment and the advancement opportunities you will receive. Enroll in a school that has highly qualified teachers and an adequate amount of teaching resources available. Obviously, teachers with several years of experience are usually better teachers than those who have just started their teaching careers. The quality of your education can affect your starting salary and advancement opportunities as a phlebotomist.

If you need more help finding phlebotomy schools in your area, please contact us. We will do our best to help you out.

7 tips for locating the best phlebotomy schools and jump-start your career as a phlebotomist

The post 7 Tips For Locating The Best Phlebotomy Schools appeared first on Phlebotomy Training Group.

The PST tube is used for STAT general chemistry orders and the SST tube is used for more routine chemistry blood tests.

The blood sample in an SST tube has to clot before the serum can be used. This usually takes about 30 minutes.

The PST tube offers a whole blood specimen that can be used almost immediately, which is why it is used for STAT orders.

What is the Difference Between the Chemicals in the PST and SST Vacutainer® Blood Collection Tubes?

The Plasma Separator Tube, also referred to as PST, contains lithium heparin and plasma separator gel; whereas, the Serum Separator Tube, also referred to as SST, contains a clot activator and a serum separator gel.

The SST Tube

There are two kinds of SST tubes. One tube has a Gold stopper and the other has a Red-Gray Marble stopper. These tubes have a clot activator on the glass and a polymer gel as the separator. These tubes are used to separate the blood cells from the serum. The tube must be inverted five times following blood collection. This mixes the blood with the clot activator that lines the inside of the tube. The clot activator ensures that clotting occurs within 30 minutes after collection.

The PST Tube

There is only one kind of PST tube. It has a mint green stopper. This tube is only used on patients who are in the hospital. This tube contains lithium heparin to keep the blood from clotting and has a gel plasma separator. This tube is used to obtain whole blood, plasma. To ensure that the blood does not clot, the tube must be inverted eight times following blood collection. This tube is used for therapeutic drug monitoring and general chemistries. Because the PST tube contains lithium, it cannot be used to test a patient’s lithium level.

The post The differences between the SST™ & PST™ blood collection tubes appeared first on Phlebotomy Training Group.

The reality is that starting an IV and obtaining a blood sample are two very different techniques. This is not to say that a nurse is unable to obtain a blood sample from a patient; there is no doubt that she could.

However, nurses have many other responsibilities to attend to; whereas, a phlebotomist’s sole purpose is to obtain adequate blood samples.

Some believe that leaving the responsibility of blood collection to the phlebotomist would allow for collection that is more efficient and a reduction in contamination rates and inadequate specimens.

When a hospital decides to shift the blood specimen collection and handling responsibility from their specially trained phlebotomists to their certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and registered nurses (RNs), it is referred to as decentralized phlebotomy. There have been debates over decentralized phlebotomy for years.

The Debate

Nurses can Obtain Specimens, Keeping the Patient’s Daily Cycle in Mind

One of the arguments used for decentralized phlebotomy systems is that patients feel more comfortable if the nurse that is taking care of them performs the blood collection procedure. Cynthia Baecher, R.N., who is a critical care nurse at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Massachusetts states that she has more control over the care of her patients when she is responsible for obtaining their blood. She continues saying that she can coordinate their blood work with their daily cycles, preventing interruptions when the patient is resting.

Timed Draws May Not Coincide with a Patient’s Daily Cycle

Some blood tests require that the patient is fasting for a particular number of hours. This means that no matter what the time, the blood specimen must be obtained. Some tests are timed draws to check medication levels, which also have the possibility of interrupting a patient’s sleep cycle. Another test to consider is blood cultures. Many times several sets of blood cultures are drawn a specified amount of time from one another. For instance, a physician may order three sets of blood cultures to be completed 30 minutes apart.

There are More Mistakes When Phlebotomists are Replaced by RNs and CNAs

Those who are in favor of centralized phlebotomy state that there are many more mistakes when the blood collection is left up to the nursing staff. Susan Schneider, the director of Clinical Laboratory Science at the Springfield Technical Community College states that specimens are labeled incorrectly, the incidence of repeat blood draws increases and patients are not identified correctly when the nurses are responsible for blood collection.

Phlebotomists Know the Proper Collection Procedure for Each Test

Some of the vacutainer tubes have special chemicals in them; the color of the tube identifies the chemical within. The blood test determines which color vacutainer tube is used. These chemicals are used to bring out particular problems for analysis, which then leads to a patient’s diagnosis. Phlebotomists are specially trained to know which tests require special treatment and what color tube is used for each test the physician orders.

Certain blood tests need to be protected from light, refrigerated or even frozen a phlebotomist is knowledgeable in this area, a nurse may not be. Some tubes contain an anticoagulant that keeps the blood from forming a clot. For some tests, the blood in this type of tube is useless. According to Schneider, the techniques and practices used in phlebotomy are always changing.

Nurses Draw Directly from the Vein

Baecher says that she works in the intensive care unit and that she and her colleagues are familiar with the various tubes used for particular tests. She continues stating that all the nurses draw blood from their patients using central lines or access devices that are inserted into the patient by a physician. Baecher says that the only difference is that nurses draw blood directly from a vein whereas phlebotomists draw indirectly with a tube.

Drawing Blood is an Art Form

Schneider believes that there is a big difference between the two. A phlebotomist is able to perform an invasive process while minimizing a patient’s trauma. She considers drawing blood to be an art that takes years to perfect.

According to Dianne M. Cutillo, Cooley Dickinson’s director of public relations, even with decentralization taking place at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, the phlebotomist will remain on staff. Phlebotomists will continue to be an important part of Dickinson’s patient care team, working in the outpatient lab.

The question at hand is whether the theory that centralizing phlebotomy will save money, improve specimen quality and be more efficient.

In 2012, a Hospital in Texas Decided to Investigate the Possibility of Centralized Phlebotomists

Parkland Health & Hospital System’s Emergency Department completed a two-week pilot using centralized phlebotomy services. According to the hospital, centralizing phlebotomists within their emergency department saved them $122,000 and improved the quality of the specimens that were collected.

Round-the-Clock Phlebotomy Staffing in the Emergency Room

Because of the positive outcome, the main emergency room at Parkland was originally staffed with six of its own phlebotomists Monday through Friday. The hospital now has round-the-clock phlebotomy staffing in its emergency room.

Clifann McCarley, who is the vice president of nursing at Parkland, stated that initially the nurses and patient care technicians drew the majority of blood samples in the emergency room. However, the hospital decided to re-evaluate this practice as the patient volumes continued to increase. The hospital’s main emergency room generally sees approximately 10,000 patients every month.

Debbie Perrault is the vice president of laboratory services at Parkland. She states that in an intense, fast-paced emergency room like the one at Parkland, obtaining blood samples can be a challenge. Perrault continued stating that the phlebotomist has one function, to efficiently obtain blood specimens from patients so that the diagnostic process can begin. Phlebotomists are trained to draw blood quickly and with the least amount of pain.

Parkland Health & Hospital Systems has decided to use centralized phlebotomy in their emergency room. Ultimately, each hospital will make its own decision as to whether they will be a centralized or decentralized hospital.

Surely the debate will continue. Even if every hospital in the country chooses to be decentralized, a skilled phlebotomist will always be necessary in the outpatient labs throughout the nation.

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