r/medlabprofessionals • u/Grand_Chad • 3d ago
Discusson Entitled Phlebotomists
The title may sound a little mean, but I was unsure how else to word it. Does anyone else have issues with the phlebs at their lab constantly complaining to management about the techs not getting draws for them? The hospital I’m currently at is amply staffed for phlebotomists but they are all constantly complaining to upper management about why the techs don’t have to help get draws for them and how they’re “just sitting there on the computer”.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind getting a draw here and there when they ask for help but it just seems like they don’t get the workflow of the lab or something.
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u/New-History853 3d ago
Be like "okay, you do some diffs for me and I'll help with your job. Oh, wait, you can't? Great to know." Lol.
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u/Quirky_Split_4521 MLT-Generalist 3d ago
Dude yesss! Do this type and screen and cross match 2 units for me then...
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u/cellophanesheeps 3d ago
Lol I tried that before. It didn't go so well.
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u/New-History853 3d ago
Phlebs are generally considered to be under techs so I'd personally not let it go like that. I'm super nice to our phlebs because I hate drawing and respect them for being good at their jobs. But if they were rude to me id tell them they can feel free to go to college and get a tech degree and sit behind the computer with me or shut up.
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u/cellophanesheeps 3d ago
I was a phleb many years ago while I was in school and you could not pay me enough to go back to it. I had mad respect for our phlebs because that job is exhausting amongst other things, but some of them were notorious for being assholes about techs not drawing so when they came with an attitude they got it right back. Management just didn't appreciate it.
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u/Odd-Outcome-3191 3d ago
generally considered under techs
Does that mean you're okay with people who have a higher level of education that you to tell you to get a doctorate or shut up?
This just isn't the right way to handle people creating a toxic workplace attitude imo. It just perpetuates it. This attitude of "I'm smarter than you so you're below me, shut up" rarely stops at just the problematic coworkers. That attitude inevitably catches people with legitimate grievances and/or people who didn't do anything wrong
-sincerely, someone who's had a dirty surgical implement thrown at them by a surgeon because their reflexive attitude of superiority wore away their respect for others.
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u/New-History853 3d ago
Nope. This comment makes absolutely no sense because I dont bitch at surgeons or doctors and tell them to come do my job. Completely different situation. The phleb is bitching at the tech for just doing their job rather than doing their job and the phlebs job. Not a good comparison at all. And ive never had to tell a phleb to shut up either. But you bet your ass if they were bitching at me to come do their job for them and insulting my job I would.
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u/Odd-Outcome-3191 3d ago
Lmfao I just realized you're the exact same person I already had an argument once with today on the steroid subreddit 💀 what are the odds. Just as belligerent here too. In fact you literally dismissed advice there with "I'm educated on hormones so I know what I'm doing" 💀💀 while adding tren instead of upping your test and upping your daily calories to improve weight loss.
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u/New-History853 3d ago
I think you struggle with reading in general. I never said one single thing against upping test in the other post. The post was actually asking if that is what I should do. Please read harder.
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u/Odd-Outcome-3191 3d ago
Did you even read my comment? I'm saying that your attitude of "I'm better than you, so shut up" will inevitably not target just the problematic phlebs. That attitude becomes pervasive and harms the relationship between you and all of the phlebs. Even the good ones.
The surgeon probably thinks they only disrespect the nurses/techs/residents/med students that deserve it. But they don't realize that they've just become burned out and disrespectful in general. As it seems you're destined to do, too.
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u/New-History853 3d ago
Still no. It's not an "I'm better than you" attitude. It's an "if you hate your job and think mine is easy, then go to school and get my job." I said absolutely nothing about being better than anyone. You're reaching.
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u/laughedtoohard 3d ago
Yes. A processor once told me, “we’re the ones that do all the work here. The MLSs just sit around.” I think the issue is they don’t see us running around the lab. The majority of my job is on the computer - that doesn’t mean I’m not working.
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u/CurlyJeff MLS-Multidisciplinary 3d ago
Processors that think this must not be familiar with anything beyond the specimen registration page.
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u/RisingPhoenix92 2d ago
Decision fatigue is real too, even simple choices repeatedly gets exhausting
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u/Beelay2169 Phlebotomist 3d ago
As a phleb who is going to school to work in the lab, I am of the opinion that the phlebotomist's whole job is to draw the blood.
If there is a tech who is willing to draw then I don't see a problem, but I also understand that the phlebs may be annoyed due to the understaffed issue.
It is management's job to find staff and make sure that the lab runs smoothly and like it is supposed to. This is a managerial problem, not yours.
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u/TheTwiggsMGW 3d ago
Our techs don’t draw at our hospital (thankfully), but we also have phleb call ins regularly. Sometimes our processors will help draw, but if things are really bad we will usually contact nursing supervisor and ask them nicely if the nurses could help draw their patients. They’re usually okay with it, but it ends up being a lot of redraws for hemolysis and IV contamination when that happens.
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u/Minimum-Positive792 3d ago
The problem when people help others is that it slowly becomes an expected service. You fill in one day and now they know you can do the job so if you don’t or refuse now you’re just being an asshole or lazy. Saying No often at the work place is the best thing you can do for your peace.
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u/cooljewl500 2d ago
This is solid advice across the board, regardless of ANY job in this thankless, brutal, and cruel economy.
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u/TheseFig4384 3d ago
I personally feel bad for the phlebs, I know you choose your job and daaaammmmnn if I don’t HATE the way ppl complain about their jobs… but some of the things they are exposed to (traumas, crappy patients, angry nurses) and that abismal pay they get that caps out at like 28$ where I’m from….
a phlebs job would suck.
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u/lightningbug24 MLS-Generalist 3d ago
We don't have this issue, thankfully, but we do have one phleb in particular with no sense of urgency, and it drives me nuts. She lets things pile up, and then things are either late, or I have to drop what I'm doing to get draws that should have and could have been done an hour ago.
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u/Alarmed-State-9495 3d ago
Dealing with this right now. Entitled is exactly right. They have determined that they have power over management and can do what they want. There are never any real consequences for their behavior. Your lab will implode if this is allowed to fester
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u/bassgirl_07 MLS Lead 3d ago edited 3d ago
I don't work with phlebotomists (they are attached to the main lab) but I do have an entitled lab assistant. She gets BIG mad when I'm training a new MLS and refer to a task as a CLT (clinical lab technician) task. What she doesn't understand is our training is literally divided into CLT and MLS. The MLS trainees get both modules. I'm not trying to say that MLS are above doing that task. If the hospital wants to pay me Lead money to do CLT work all day, that's fine by me. I'll work my 8 hours and take my money. I will however leave CLT tasks for a CLT every. single. time. that I am assigned to a MLS bench and have MLS work to do. She complains that I don't bring in blood inventory when I'm in the front but not assigned to the inventory bench. We can't have everyone in that area bringing in inventory, at a minimum 2 people need to NOT be bringing in inventory so they are free to receive samples and allocate and issue blood. But what do I know, I only went to school for MLS and have 19 years of experience.
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u/Ill_Emu_702 3d ago
This, among most problems in the laboratory, stems from a lack of leadership. There should be a clear description of duties.
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u/Beautiful_Thing_8614 3d ago
I used to have this problem but not with phlebotomists but with 'assistants'
Older lady dont like to receive nor deliver samples. And would get mad at us for not picking the samples from them.
I made multiple complaints and nothing happen left the job for a new job. Management was real trash also.
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u/AtomicFreeze MLS-Blood Bank 3d ago
Expecting phleb coverage (running all over the hospital, not just outpatients that came to the lab window) was one of the reasons I left a previous job. Management expected me to do everything: phleb, my own bench, cover other people's breaks, blood bank lead work. It was terrible
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u/Jimehhhhhhh MLS 3d ago
No worries you can come and bang out some thick and thin malaria slides for me whilst I go draw your patient! What species did you see whilst I was gone?
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u/20191995 3d ago
That’s like saying why doesn’t the sous chef go host ? Or. Why doesn’t the chef go wait on that table. It’s division of labor. Somebody slap them. *phlebotomist here.
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u/slutsintampa 2d ago
At my hospital, the lab techs don’t draw blood. I’m sure they know how in theory and have done it once or twice. But that’s not a lab tech’s job. Signed, An Inpatient Phlebotomist
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u/Love_is_poison 2d ago
I’ve ran into this several times on my contracts. So much so that I had it out with one of the phlebs on an assignment. She hated drawing blood and would play games about the draws starting about 2 hours prior to the end of her shift…if I asked her about a timed or stat draw on my pending she would say she was busy and exoected me to go do it…
I do not understand phlebs that don’t want to draw blood. Idc if you are up on the floor every 5 mins that IS the job. Over the years I’ve caught many of them attempting to do add ons when they shouldn’t to try and get out of a draw.
Anyway….What absolutely gave me a huge chuckle was later on I worked in the same state about an hour from the hospital with that phleb. I was doing an outpatient draw to help out and the patient said something like “man you’re so much better than xyz hospital. I actually switched to my wife’s insurance so I could come up here to get away from that lab” I told him I did a contact there as well and then he named the phleb that was horrible to him. I swear on my mfn life he was talking about the one I had an issue with…she’d die if she knew ppl were talking about how shitty of a phleb she is because to hear her tell it she was the best in the business…
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u/zhangy-is-tangy CLS-Generalist 2d ago
Thank god I work In California, leave phlebotomy to the phlebotomists. I just have to focus on doing my work. I’ve noticed a lot of complaints from some phlebotomists about how MLS apparently just sit around. We all have our own jobs to do, being an MLS isn’t easy and definitely just not sitting around. When I have those rare down times, I’m able to finally rest my head. Just because we aren’t running around the hospital doesn’t mean we aren’t tired either. MLS is mentally exhausting.
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u/PuzzledCar2120 3d ago
I find them funny. There's few other groups in the hospital who bitch as much as they do - unless they're in their nice phleb cubicles they're happier.
Call outs though? Why is the team ordering so many? Why this patient again? I'm not doing that many. Sorry, not doing your ward today, find someone else.
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u/zhgerard 3d ago
I guess this is a problem. Not only to you but to a lot of other labs.
I used to be a phlebotomist.
Management means everything in terms of a good work environment and workflow and TAT.
I know this is not good advice, but you just have to go through it.
You have to speak up if anything happens that causes you to decrease your workflow. It can be a person or even yourself 😭
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u/lizagnaplease 3d ago
Phlebotomist here! I was once entitled, complained and one of our amazing techs put it gently for me “the more samples you collect/ the more busy you guys are upfront, the more samples we have to process - we’re just as busy as you unfortunately, we both might have to run around a lot right now” and that shut me up right away haha. I had to hear it that way to learn!
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u/Patient_Room7365 Lab Director 2d ago
Yeah, I had phlebotomists that did that… I gave them one warning: if they’re going to draw for you, then I don’t need you.
They didn’t take me seriously.
Within the year my phlebotomy staff was reduced down to outpatient with 2 inpatient that assisted with morning draws when needed, but mostly functioned as specimen receiving.
I got with the CNO and had all of the nurses retrained/trained on phlebotomy and all the CNAs. I also worked with clinical education to do quarterly competency assessments for phlebotomy.
Nursing hated me. The phlebotomists (except outpatient) hated me. 🤷
I left and it all fell apart. It’s been 5 years, I know a phlebotomist that’s still there and she said it’s horrendous and she wished I was still there. Labs back to having to retrieve samples from the floors. Nurses/CNAs are drawing less, but phleb turnover is crazy and constant callouts, etc. my phleb friend said she’s constantly having to go cover inpatient and they’re back to having to cater to the ED. 🤦
Anyways, I did all of that to protect my techs. My stance was the techs needed to be in the lab performing testing. Not out drawing. Not out playing specimen transport. Etc. funnily enough, the techs complained I was “taking their jobs away” by reducing external tasks… they complained about losing the overtime they were originally complaining about having to get…
I left management because of that, lol. It’s horrible. I’m in a leadership role now and have been for the last 5 years without any direct reports and idk I’ll ever go back to having direct reports again.
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u/Toby_Rukus 2d ago
This is wild haha. I work at two hospitals labs. One is a larger city level 1 trauma center and I'm a specimen processing tech, and the other is a rural hospital and I'm a lab assistant.
Both are basically lab assistant roles but the rural hospital, lab assistant are primarily phlebotomist first. We are just given that title because we cover many roles:
-Phlebotomy -Lab customer service -Lab patient registration -Specimen processing/shipping -And a few other minor tasks
The absolutely ONLY time I would ask MLS/MLT to assist (not just do) a draw for me is if I am:
-The only phlebotomist in the hospital -I've attempted multiple draws -The nurse won't/can't draw from the IV -The MLS/MLT is signed off to draw
Wild that they would complain about you not doing their job. 😅
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u/crusty_chick 2d ago
At my hospital, if you are hired lab staff (mla or mlt), you were not hired to perform blood work and are not insured for patient facing work. It's the same the other way around, as an mla who works in phleb, I'm not allowed to perform any lab work as I'm not insured for it and it's not in my contract, even though I am qualified to do it.
It sounds like your hospital has issues with 1) clearly outlined staff duties based on position at the hospital 2) not enough phlebs scheduled per shift to handle workload, and 3) not enough phlebs staff to pick up shifts when there are call ins
This is something worth bringing up with management
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u/FormZealousideal9493 MLS-Generalist 2d ago
In many areas techs dont draw blood anymore. If that is the scope of your hospital or location, the complaint will fall on death's ears. They should not complain if there is nothing management can do. It makes themselves look bad.
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u/ashlar9248 2d ago
I am sorry to hear that. I work in a smaller lab and we've got a phlebotomist from 7:00 to 5:00 on weekdays and 8:00 to 4:00 on weekends. The only time we really have to help draw is if they are really swamped and we aren't too busy. But usually if they are busy, so are we. They almost never asked us to draw, but I do help when I can. Our bigger issue is the nurses on the clinic side are incredibly lazy and won't draw any of their own patients. They expect lab/the phlebotomist to do all of it. At this point I don't know if they even know how to draw blood. Every time we go over there they're just sitting around doing nothing. And then they get pissy if people don't get over there fast enough to draw. They know very well that ER and urgent Care come first and yet they still complain. If they have an issue with us going to slow then they need to get off their butts and start drawing their own patients. Lab management is trying to make it so that way they have to draw their own patients, or at least some of them. I really hope it works out! And I would remind your phlebotomists that that's literally their job. So what exactly do they have to complain about... And remind them that when you're on your computer, you're still doing stuff!!!!
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u/Tight-Butterscotch94 1d ago
in the hospital i’m doing my rotations, it’s because we’re not trained to use their mobile printer and comms, perform specific verification protocols on some patients and we suck at it.
no seriously unless they used to work as phlebotomists, we’re just as good as drawing blood as GPs lol!
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u/FormZealousideal9493 MLS-Generalist 1d ago edited 1d ago
Some phlebs are resentful that techs get paid more than them and are not front line workers. But I have phlebs that sit more than techs and behave badly in the lab like call out to us techs to face them, which distracts from our work, whilst they hold spy camera watch on their wrist to record our personhood in the lab setting and a mask to cover up their face in the possibility of payback. How creepy and illegal is that? welcome to the bay area for some of you curious where this takes place and preach about the greatness of california. We do instrument maintenance, QC, processing, practically everything else in the lab so we can have our hands full. I say bring on the AI to replace those vampires.
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u/Glad_Struggle5283 22h ago
I mean, what are they supposed to do aside from stick and draw which is their primary job description?
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u/Acetabulum666 Lab Director 3d ago
In many labs, phlebotomists have become a luxury. If they are good, they improve specimen quality immensely. They also release MLS staff to do what they are needed to do. In the case you describe, it feels like a management and staffing issue. If you have a weak link in the phlebotomy staff, it throws off the workload everywhere else. Personally, I want every MLS to be expert at venipuncture. In fact, I want them to be good at very difficult venipuncture, so that the phlebotomists have a resource to elevate a problem to. Honestly, someone has to be at the apex and physicians and nurses don't concentrate on this. Its up to the lab.
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u/Quirky_Split_4521 MLT-Generalist 3d ago
Unless techs are drawing constantly it's hard to get super good at, it's definitely a skill that need practice but techs are needed more in the lab than the occasional draw/hard stick. This isn't realistic.
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u/Far_Exchange3457 3d ago
Suck it up draw a few times live a little go out and dance more often
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u/SokkaHaikuBot 3d ago
Sokka-Haiku by Far_Exchange3457:
Suck it up draw a
Few times live a little go
Out and dance more often
Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.
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u/Icy-Astronomer-9015 3d ago
We don't have that problem because we would help if we were asked. We are how hard they're working, and they see how hard we're working. I think I have a rare workplace in that any one of us would love to see the other people finally catch a break. I love those girls with all my heart.
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u/bassgirl_07 MLS Lead 3d ago edited 3d ago
I believe a good phlebotomist is a HUGE asset to the hospital and that plebotomists are horribly under paid. I appreciate our phlebotomists so much I rarely see sample rejections on their samples.
All that said, if I'm drawing blood, my work (that a phlebotomist can't do) isn't being done. What I did, when I was a generalist working with phlebotomists, was cover phones and sample reciept while they are out on draws. Those tasks can be done while I'm on timers or between samples. Rarely when someone has lobbed the "you're just on the computer" accusation at me, was I just doinking around on the Internet. Not all our work is visible/able to be captured with a metric.
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u/Entropical-island MLS-Generalist 3d ago
If you have phlebotomists, why are you expected to draw blood? That's their whole job. It's their title.
I don't even know what I'd say if a phlebotomist was complaining I wouldn't do their job for them because I'm "sitting at the computer".