Salary and remuneration

The salary of the Phlebotomist is influence by several factors that includes years of practical experience, industry type, type of employer, specialization and geographical location etc.

Years of experience:

• The Phlebotomist with experience of less than one year earns $19,298 – $42,574 per annum.
• The Phlebotomist of one to four years of practical experience earns $18,017 – $36,847 and the hourly wage is between $9.21 and $15.24 per annum.
• The salary range of the Phlebotomist with experience of five to nine years can earn $21,793 – $41,775 and the hourly salary of the Phlebotomist is $10.17 and $16.69.
• The salary scale of the Phlebotomist with experience between ten to nineteen years area paid $22,038 – $44,385 and the hourly wage of the Phlebotomist is between $12.90 and $17.20.
• The salary range of the Phlebotomist with twenty years of experience can earn $24,553 – $59,808 and the hourly salary range is $11.70 – $19.39.

• Industry

• The Phlebotomist working in health care industries earns an annual income of $20,125 – $40,140.
• The salary range of the individuals working in hospitals typically makes an annual salary of $19,700 – $40,359.
• The Phlebotomist working in medical services earns $19,613 – $45,456 per annum.
• The Phlebotomist in professional analytical or laboratory services earns salary of $20,373 – $40,664 per annum.
•  The Phlebotomist working for an industry that Functions by collecting blood samples makes $18,000 – $42,683 per annum.
•  The individual working in medical offices earn annual salary range of $12,000 – $47,932.
• The Phlebotomist working in physician’s office earn an annual salary of $19,392 – $37,406.

• Employer Type

• A Phlebotomist when he works for a company he gets an annual pay of $19,698 – $38,640 per annum.
• A Phlebotomist when engaged by a private or practice firm, the salary range of the Phlebotomist is $19,668 – $42,574 per annum.
• The salary scale of the Phlebotomist when he is recruited by a non-profit organization earns $18,616 – $41,157 per annul.
• The Phlebotomist when employed by other organizations earns $20,375 – $42,736 per year.
• When Phlebotomist is employed by hospitals that are operated by state or local officials, the salary scale of the Phlebotomist is $21,532 – $51,521
• A camp counselor when employed by a hospital earns an annual salary in the range of $30,339 – $70,523.
• When a Phlebotomist is employed by a foundation or trust, he can aern$18,867 – $29,090 per annum.

• Skills and Speciality
  • The Phlebotomist when he knows about paediatrics along with other qualification can make $23,532 – $52,221 per annum.
• When the Phlebotomist knows about customers service matrices amongst his other qualifications earns $22,782 – $50,181 per year.
• The salary range of the Phlebotomist specialized in the Geriatrics earn $24,182 – $54,181 per year.
• When the Phlebotomist knows about computer services along with his other qualifications earn $25,123 – $53,181 per year.
• When the Phlebotomist knows how to arrange medical records amongst his other qualifications he earns $22,782 – $50,181 per year.

Educational requirements for a phlebotomist job:

• Any medical professional or technician must possess minimum educational qualification to understand the terms related to the field.
• The Phlebotomist must have completed high school diploma or acquire other diploma certificate.
• After completing t high school diploma they need to enroll to training programs which lasts for one year and they teach al the phlebotomy techniques.
• They can have some practical experience by working under the guidance of the senior Phlebotomist.
• Some hospitals or organization even demand for bachelor’s degree at initial stages and for experienced Phlebotomist it is not mandatory.
• The phlebotomy course is offered by many hospitals, colleges and vocational training schools.
• All the hospitals, clinical centers and blood banks demand for the completion of the phlebotomy training course.
• They need to complete some courses that teach the terminology relate to the phlebotomy, Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), patient interaction principles, blood collection techniques and  phlebotomy clinical methods.
• During the degree program, they need to focus on the vascular anatomy, vascular physiology, skin puncture, vein puncture, safety methods of drawing blood and details about various tools used to pull out blood from the body.
• Most employers or companies in present days recruit only Phlebotomist recognized by the National Association of the Medical Personnel.

About Phlebotomist:

The Phlebotomist is medical technician who draws blood from the body and help the patients in emergency cases who require blood urgently. They even draw the blood for blood transfusions. The Phlebotomist needs to undergo training in the phlebotomy field to learn the process of taking out blood from the veins in the body. The drawn blood is submitted to tests and used for diagnostic procedure or predicting whether the patient’s body can sustain for the surgery. They label the collected samples as per the patients name and must be careful as mismatch can cause great damage to the patient health. They must work quickly as they receive hundred of samples daily. They work closely with all medical specialists, clinical experts, research scientist and other medical staff in the hospital for which they work. They need to learn the standard procedures of pulling out blood from the patients.

The Phlebotomist need to find out vein before taking out the blood and ensure that patient doesn’t suffer from any infection after performing this procedure. The important duty of the Phlebotomist is to keep the area clean and ensure that there is necessary stock of needles and other supplies. They need to verify the donor identification proof to prevent the legal hassles that may occur in future. The Phlebotomist must explain the complete procedure before pulling out the blood to make him feel comfortable. They examine the patient’s blood and detect whether patient is suffering from any sexually transmitted disease like HIV/AIDS and gonorrhea etc. They make use of antiseptic liquid to locate the vein before drawing blood. This can turn dangerous when the procedure is not performed properly. They need to have brief idea about the circulatory system and physiology. The Phlebotomist needs to transfer the blood samples to laboratory where they are examined. They also enter the patient details in electronic data base and note down manually to submit to the higher authorities by the end of the day.

Skills required for the phlebotomist:

• They must possess good knowledge about the specimen collection methods.
• They must be able to locate the vein for taking out blood.
• They need to have outstanding oral and written skills.
• Possess skills to maintain good interaction with patients and maintain relationships.
• The Phlebotomist must be proficient in collecting blood samples and even the reports of the laboratory tests.
• They must have superior people skills to communicate with patients, brief them the vein puncture method , gather details regarding the medications that the patients is using and evaluate how the medications affect the health.
• They should be able to use different tools to draw blood without hurting the patients.
• They must be able to identify the patient test result and to avoid clashes and prevent them from turning in to disastrous.
• They must possess proper paper work skills to document the reports.
• They must have computer proficiency to store the details of the patients in the hospital database.
• They need to have skills to learn the safety policies in blood drawing.
• The Phlebotomist need to manage time properly and capable to work under stressful conditions.
• They must fill the details of patients in the requisition form.
• They must understand the color coding of the tubes available in laboratory or in the health centers.
• They must have brief idea about the chemicals that are to be used to preserve the blood samples and prevent them from clotting.
• They need to have good hand eye coordination and have good mind presence while pulling out blood.

The following are the vital duties and responsibilities that are to be performed by the Phlebotomist.

Duties and responsibilities of the phlebotomist:

• They draw blood samples by using finger sticks or heel sticks.
• They need to greet the customers visiting the health care centers.
• They must instruct the customers regarding the blood collection methods.
• They label the samples to identify easily and avoid clashes.
• They even enter the collected number of specimens per day in the computer and furnish the details of the patients to whom the tests have been performed.
• They use the centrifuge to split the blood and identify the antigens and antibodies present in the blood.
• They answer the phone calls and give proper response to the people regarding the cost of the test and provide them prior appointment.
• They sometimes even direct or transfer call to the respective departments on the request of the customer.
• They prepare report for the test samples after examining them in the laboratory and distribute the report to the respective clinical department.
• They are responsible to keep the working area clean.
• In some extreme cases, they record the patient’s blood pressure, pulse rate and blood sugar level etc.
• The prime responsibility of the Phlebotomist is to check whether all the tools and other supplies are in good condition and are cleaned properly to get rid of the infections that usually occur.
• They are responsible to prepare documents related to the patient medical history and forward to the clinical physician.
• They need to instruct the junior staff by briefing them the several procedures of drawing blood.
• They must follow the standard rules while drawing blood and maintain quality parameters.
• They need to perform some administrative tasks like scheduling appointments, cleaning tools and answering phone etc.
• They must participate in seminars and sometimes conduct seminars in colleges or universities to encourage the students to donate blood and save lives of many people.
• They need to interpret the blood results.

What kind of certification does a phlebotomist require?

• There are several certification programs and training institutes that offer certification courses for the Phlebotomist.
• The Phlebotomist in order to get licensed, must pass the exam conducted by the American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP).
• The license of the Phlebotomist varies with state and the work setting.
• The candidates can also take course offered by the Association of Phlebotomy Technicians (ASPT) and the course include one year training programs and the minimum eligibility criteria to take this course is the candidate must have six months of practical experience as Phlebotomist.
• The candidate must have 40 hours of clinical practice experience to take on the certification course offered by the National Phlebotomy Association (NPA).
• The Phlebotomist must complete the ASCP certified phlebotomy technician course to get complete idea about the duties that are to be performed by the phlebotomist after getting recruited by accompany.
• The Certified Nursing Course (CNA) is the other certification course that is chosen by many students after completing their high school diploma.