After a year and two months of unemployment and about six months of actively applying, I finally got an interview with BioLife for a Plasma Center Technician position. I don’t have experience with plasma or phlebotomy, so getting this chance felt like a big step forward. I went in today, arrived early, and ended up sitting alone in a conference room for about forty minutes past the scheduled interview time. It was busy, so I didn’t mind, and the interview itself went well. They told me to expect a second interview sometime next week.

Now that I’m home, I keep thinking about questions I should have asked, so I wanted to ask here for advice from people who work at BioLife or in similar roles. I asked about the uniform and was told that PCTs wear dark blue scrubs Monday through Thursday, fun scrubs on Fridays, and BioLife T-shirts with jeans on weekends. They didn’t specify what kinds of jeans are allowed. I only own baggy jeans and loose boot-cut jeans, so I’m wondering if those are acceptable or if I need to buy something else.

I also asked about shoes, and they said they need to be light-colored, leather or leather-like, easy to wipe, and easy to spot if blood gets on them. They mentioned that if blood gets on your shoes, they make you throw them out immediately. I’m trying to find something practical that isn’t Crocs. If anyone works at BioLife, what shoes or boots do you use? I also wondered if waterproofing sprays actually help in this kind of environment.

The last thing I’m trying to figure out is scheduling. The shifts rotate weekly between mornings and evenings, anywhere from 5 AM to 9 PM. I originally planned to get a second job, but with rotating shifts, that might be harder than I expected. I’m looking for very flexible remote work that I could do overnight or partially during the day. I need extra income because $18 an hour for around 30 hours a week isn’t enough to cover my student loans, credit card payments, and other bills.

Any advice, tips, or personal experiences would really help. I want to do well as a PCT and hopefully open doors for future opportunities, even if this role doesn’t lead to a phlebotomy license or certification. Thank you in advance.

Has anyone noticed a correlation between IVDU and difficult veins that feel soft and almost pillowy? I’m used to hard, cord-like veins due to scar tissue - where they could be mistaken for tendons.

I’ve had a couple patients over the past year with characteristic scarring on the skin, but when I palpated, the veins felt like… a thin plastic bag filled with air? The surface-level ones left an indent in the tissue after palpation.Not normal mushy veins like when someone’s dehydrated.

Anyone know what I’m talking about? What causes that?

I love Bobs Burgers and this episode had me dying and cringing. The best part: Linda calls us full bottomists 🤣

Hi everyone. I live in Los Angeles, California and I’m planning on taking phlebotomy classes next year. I want to self study and take notes for now so I can be more well prepared . Does anyone know of any helpful videos or resources for self studying. I know drawing blood is something that you have to be physically there for but I just want to self study for the other things for now like memorizing blood cultures etc.

Omg I understand people having bad experiences with prior blood draws but when I have patients come in telling me what needle to use, only giving me one vein as an option, wincing and pulling away. It completely sets me up to fail everytime because now you gave me anxiety too and I already feel like I’m going to fail before I even looked at your veins !

Kaiser in Vancouver is hiring job # 1451678 it is a float and a great opportunity! It is not often they have jobs available so if your in the area and looking for a job I encourage you to apply! Remember school is experience. Yes you have to have to be licensed to practice phlebotomy in the state of Washington, but if you went to an accredited school, you are able to get that license.

I passed today with a 433! Was wondering the best places to start working at?

i’m in my second week of phlebotomy school and i’ve done 4 sticks, 2 of which were successful and were visible/veins i could feel.

one person was notoriously a hard stick and the other person someone was able to draw from but i couldn’t. i’m not super worried about the first person but the second person since i saw someone get blood from her im discouraged :/

the only vein i could see and feel was already drawn from. (they said i could draw from the same vein just below it and i did try but i didnt get anything i just ended up hurting her and i feel really bad. also they’re teaching us to fish for veins i thought that was a big no no????)

they’re only letting us draw from the median cubital veins and cephalic veins, no mention of hand veins or forearms and we are completely forbidden from drawing from the basillic.

there’s also no heat packs on campus to help us get a vein. it feels like unrealistic practice since i would have heat packs in a clinic/hospital or at least a glove with hot water, the vein finder machine or use a double tourniquet method but they’re not even helping us with that!! if we can’t get it it’s just an “oh well better luck next time!” (also limited to three draws and a single finger stick per class)

and on the hard sticks i could see and feel hand veins but they haven’t mentioned anything about drawing from there?? i’m gonna try and ask next week about hand veins but i feel like they should’ve already told us about this.

i don’t know what to do im limited in resources/techniques theyre just letting us stick with minimal critiques on methods and saying we’ll get better with practice which yes thats true but dude can you help me??? i asked and its just the basics i already know and im doing it and its not good results

i know it’s early on in my practice but it doesn’t feel like im being set up for success tbh :( i’m also extra discouraged bc im not a hard stick i have great veins so everyone comes to me and collects their successful draws but im just here struggling it doesn’t feel very fair :(

also sweaty hands and gloves are a pain is there anything i can do about that?? i size up the gloves but it impedes on my ability to do things so it makes the draw unnecessarily harder for me to do 😭

I’ve been sticking for 2 months now. And I mean 2 months. I got hired without any experience or training or knowledge in phlebotomy. For the most part, I am pretty comfortable with “easy” sticks. I can do some of the “hard” sticks but I ask my coworkers for help a lot feeling the vein and I can tell they’re annoyed and feel like I should have this already. I’m still making mistakes and I feel absolutely horrible about it because I know how annoying it is to fix people’s mistakes (I used to be the one who had to fix the mistakes). I feel like I’m going to get fired if I don’t get better really quickly. I just feel absolutely terrified every time I have a patient in the chair and a needle in my hand.

(For reference, my experience is in healthcare admin / front desk reg / referrals. I also just started nursing school pre reqs. So I know healthcare and used to put orders in for lab work, ekgs, etc. just never did it.)

For those who are currently working at Labcorp how was the phone interview?! After who knows how long of applying at different locations I finally have interview for a CPT 1 position.

Im a 21 and after two years of applying to phlebotomist jobs I had literally broken down and almost given up, planning on going back to school.
As my last grasp at success I started applying to lab assistant, research assistant, and histology positions.
Literally within a week I have found a job.
Please I beg of you all you need is your CPT 1 and they will take you.
Just be confident and talk about specimens handling and smear experience.
I know it’s so frustrating but don’t give up there is hope!
Work in a lab it’s amazing and a great place to grow!!
You got this, keep trying :3

Hello, I’m thinking about becoming phlebotomist but I had no idea how difficult to get hired until I saw some post here.

I’m middle of 40s and live in WA. About school I was going to 3weeks program school(no externship training, $1,300) but some people here mentioned they needed externship training for job and DOH. If it true for most people, I would need to go 3month school with it($3-4,000)

Question is,
1) would it be worth to become phlebotomist at my age with recent job market? (Preferably part time)

2)if so, which type of school do you recommend?

TIA

I was at the ER today and this younger nurse drew my blood. He was having a really difficult time getting a good vein and only got one vial. He eventually gave up, took the needle out, and instead of putting gauze and a bandaid on it, he wiped the blood and made a cross. This is weird right?

Update: I just sent an email to the hospital's patient experience and advocacy team and gave them as many details as I could along with the picture. Thank you guys for confirming I wasn't crazy in thinking that was weird. I was obviously more distracted on my reason for being at the hospital at the time, but looking back this has me feeling pretty anxious (diagnosed with OCD and this is sending me down a bit of a spiral).

Update 2: The Clinical Nurse Manager just called me and told me she was able to identify the name of the nurse who did this and that she would be doing an internal investigation. She said she would not be able to tell me what the consequences would be due to HR/ privacy reasons but that she would still follow up with me to keep me updated as much as she legally can.

We're trying to find out if you're related to Bigfoot

Pfizer is working on a cure ugliness and your blood is needed for the studies

I sell it on eBay. You wouldn't believe what people pay

Oh, uh, I don't actually work here. I just really like the uniform

Just got hired reviews are mixed

I just got the nha practice test on the nha website. They make the questions really hard and it does not show you what you got wrong and has you read the study guide. Is there a way I can study so I can be successful on these practice tests. I don't like how it's random each time. I really want to pass the nha exam and I have it set for the 19th but taking these practice test makes me feel like I'm gonna fail I don't get why they make them so hard so you don't pass and then when I find some online they are a lot easier.

Got offered for a virtual screening interview with the recruiter. Just wanna if any have worked here before. Thanks

Hello everyone!

I was wondering if anyone had any creative ideas for a recognition board for my fellow phlebs! Something blood related... Or lab related. I'm not very creative so I'm outsourcing!

Let me know and thank you all for the suggestions!

Let us know your favorite test you drew this past week.

Favorite color tube? Let us know. Favorite patient? (PLS KEEP HIPAA IN MIND!)

I got hired as a lab service specialist at One Medical. My first week of training were online courses and my second week of training are still online courses. My instructor really hasn’t had time to actually go over the material or do hands on training. Yesterday my trainer said by next week I should have everything memorized😵‍💫 I’m actually worried!!! I feel like I don’t have enough time to fully prepare the company’s materials and next week they wanna do my assessment, when i haven’t had any training with my instructor😭
my trainer also said “ anything you learned in school, just throw it out the window and follow the company’s policies.”

I feel like i should apply to another phlebotomy job 😢

I did a class earlier in the year and did about 30 sticks. Managed to get a clinical after a few months wait and started today. I'm bad. I missed the veins. I first observed my trainer in the early morning rounds, then tried 7 and got 3. The 3 had a little bit of help from the trainer.

In the class we did mostly straight needle into arm, which I got pretty decent at. Butterflies in the hand was tricky for everyone in the class. Today I did all butterflies, mostly in the hands of oncology inpatients.

Everyone is saying I'll get better and I have 15 total days to get 100 sticks, and basically everyone achieves it. My trainer and supervisor seem surprised that I missed so many, though, like other students weren't like that. I'm usually pretty good and most things I put effort into, but it's not happening yet.

I've taken a phlebotomy class and numerous related classes in college, I have phlebotomist certification from the NHA. Where should I look to start in this field?

Going to take my test this week, any tips or things I should study *specifically* that may be on the exam? Thanks in advance 😊