I'm a Registered Nurse and I love drawing blood!! It is a skill and the more you do it the better you will get. Some people have more of a knack for it than others.

It depends on your state whether you need a licenses or not. For example in MO you do not- you just need on the job training. I was a phlebotomist for 5 years and didn't mind it. I would not say I loved it either. I think it depends on the group of people you work with and where.

I worked in a hospital with a high volume of blood draws and a low volume of phlebotomist. There were days when we would have to draw 30+ people for morning rounds.

I love it, very very hard to find a job though they want experience and basically you need to know someone to get your foot in the door lol but I do love it

When I took my MA class here in Montana we were also offered the opportunity to get our phlebotomy license. I have both and love both aspects of it but I don't think I could just do phlebotomy all day everyday. Some people can I just enjoy variety :) good luck!

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Pp, yes!

I have a quick question. Sorry op lol

I need my high school diploma or GED before trying to apply for any phlebotomy job right ?

Cause I was thinking of looking for job that will hire me and train me on the spot.

Following ?

I also want to go to school for phlebotomy.

Where I live, I don't think you can sit for your phlebotomy certification after attending school for MA. You have to have a certain number of intern hours that must be completed in a lab. I worked for a lab (not in the phlebotomy department) and we would hire phlebs who did not attend school, or were even certified, and train them, so there is a chance for that, but we were independently owned -- I know for a fact, however, that hospitals and larger places like Carter did require that, as well as experience sometimes. I have several phleb friends who were hired straight out of school though, so maybe it's different here, but you didn't necessarily need experience.

There are a variety of hours offered -- we serviced nursing homes, so some of our phlebs worked a set M-F schedule, from about midnight to 8 am, while others did STATs. STAT phleb schedules were always very erratic because they were strictly on call. I know some medical offices will hire phlebs and they have the civeted M-F 8-5 schedule, also. The pay for phlebs here is good, even better if you have experience or get a shift differential, but the turn over rate is high -- people get burnt out on the hours and nature of the job quickly. That's just my experience and perspective.

In northern california, kaiser you make 25$ an hour but start out on call. If you get a job at a quest lab, it's 15$ an hour but you have a set schedule of part time or full time, nothing on call. Idk about other medical places such as sutter but I assume they make around 25$ an hour.

And there are jobs for just phlebotomists, I don't see why a medical assistant would go get a job in the lab and only draw blood instead of everything else they're supposed to do. And you can work in the er of hospitals, work for private physicians, you can work for life insurance companys. I did lots of research before I got into phlebotomy and it may take some people who don't have connections a little while to find a job, but at least where I live they won't hire a nurse instead of a licensed phlebotomist because nurses aren't applying for those jobs.

I think it all depends on where u live. I know you can make more working in the hospitals but the hours suck

How much does everyone make an hr?

I wish I would have known I loved doing blood so much or else I would have done the phlebotomy instead of MA. But oh well, I'm just going to do both. That way if it really is that hard for me to find a job I always have MA to fall back on.

I'm a phlebotomist. You should be phlebotomy certified or whatever to be a ma though.. at least in California I'm pretty sure.

My schooling was 4 weeks and I did a 4 week extern even though I only needed to do 1 week. I work at kaiser now, where I externed and I enjoy it. Not sure if I'll ever want to go back to school or anything to become a nurse or ma, but for being 19 and working at kaiser as a phlebotomist I'd say it's a really good start to my career

Edit: in ca after you do your externship you take your national exam, if you pass it you get certified as a phlebotomist and then you send in all your paperwork to the state and pay a fee, then wait to get your license in the mail and once your a licensed phlebotomist you can apply for jobs

Well I wouldn't say degrees, more like certifications.

I know THREE people with degrees and none of them can find jobs. ?

I had to take a class. Mine was only 3 weeks Monday through Friday four hours a day. You have to have a certain amount of sticks to pass the class then you can take the test. I haven't got a job yet because the school messed up and took almost a year to get me my externship and then once I passed the exam they took forever to get me my license .by then I was very pregnant so decided to wait to get a job....but during my externship I loved it! I don't know why but I love drawing blood from people. I almost went with medical assisting which was close to a year of schooling. So happy I did phlebotomy instead.

I didn't need to be certified to work where I worked. I could take the test & get a raise if I wanted but it wasn't required.

Medical assistants are generally trained to draw blood, in NY they are anyways so the certification really isn't needed if you are a MA

Around here some do phlebotomy without the license. We had a nurses assistant that did lab in the prison I worked at. But that position kinda fell in her lab I guess. I also work in a county health department and we have techs that draw all the blood for us who are just like medical assistants but have no certifications.

Me. I am. I took a phleb course and am studying for the ASCP exam. Haven't gotten hired as of yet, but that's ok I'm not in a hurry?

I have so much on my plate already but I'm really considering this! Thanks for all the replies.

Does anyone know if I can go to two schools at once? Lol. Because after extern I'm doing an online associates degree program at the school I got my MA certificate but that school doesn't have the phlebotomy course.

I was until I became a SAHM. I loved it! I'll still catch myself checking out veins and thinking "that's a juicy one right there" ?

I'm a certified phlebotomist. I was going for my MA at first but decided to pay $3,000 for my phlebotomy certification. I love drawing blood but I'm currently a stay at home mom. Like PP said it is hard to find a job in it if you don't have previous experience or know someone because most places want you to have experience. My course was 15 weeks long and I went 2 times a week. I had an amazing instructor. If you have American Red Cross around you I would look into getting hired on by them and having them train you. They don't charge you for the training and you get a position after finishing the class. You aren't guaranteed normal business hours though.

Edit: where I'm from you have to take the course you can't just sit for the exam. Also in NY I needed 70 sticks and a 40 hour internship.

It's probably different by state but when I went through the MA program I considered doing phlebotomy but to sit for the test you had to have so many hours of instruction and documented sticks and the phlebotomy class in the MA program didn't meet that.

You can take your licensure test be a licensed tech, I am and I loved it finding a job is super hard if you have no career experience in the field you kinda have to know someone because most places want you to have 2 years of experience but won't hire you for you to get the experience lol I loved it I'm a sahm now but I did it for 4 years

i use to work for Baylor . as a medical assistant. yeah i kniw the two are different but i loved drawing blood . lol i would love to switch over.

I did phlebotomy (it was part of my MA stuff) & LOVED it!

I worked at the hospital, independent lab, & oncologist office.