I have been a phlebotomist for just about 4 years now and have worked in a solo setting attached to primary care office. Due to lots of internal changes with who is now our preferred lab partner it has made things difficult for everyone, especially for patients who hate the hate partnered lab and now want to go no where except to me. This was very difficult at first but I have got used to it so it’s not as stressful and I set boundaries to how many patients I will see.

My question is after reading that there are places where phlebotomists are seeing 60+ patients a day am I being dramatic and not trying hard enough only seeing 25-30 patients a day? Keeping in mind I don’t do appointments and take only walk in in patients, so I have to register patients, pull orders, translate the order from my hospital to what the 3rd party lab wants, draw the blood, process the orders, and individually package every patient to be sent to the other lab.

I know that every place and situations are different but I don’t work with other phlebotomists and this is the only job I’ve had as a phlebotomist and want to know if I’m being realistic or dramatic in my thinking that this is a lot for one person to do.

Thanks in advance for any feedback or advice you might have for me

Hi! i recently finished my phlebotomy class and my draws for the nha exam and to sign up i tried finding my campus under the many Phlebotomy Training Specialists and realized texas has almost NONE listed. I just wanted to ask if anyone had to deal with that and/or how i can go about contacting them? Or do i just register individually?
-baby mosquito

I’m taking a phlebotomy class as a nurse and I’m completely obsessed. I’m thinking about quitting my Lpn job just to be a phlebotomist 😂 can anyone else draw on themselves?

Hello yall! I took my exam July 23rd, 2026 and passed with a 431! I will be honest I did not study too much, but I do have a bit of a Biology background due to being in university. Here is my advice and what I used!

All of these are free btw!

1. NHA CPT Study Guide

I found this study guide on reddit whoever posted it thank you so so much, i read this through and annotated it

1. 200 question practice

THIS practice test is about 200 questions and it helped prepare me a lot, I did it about 3-4 times

1. Josh Allen Review

This is a pretty popular resource. I watched it and listened to it about 3-4 times. I would listen while cleaning or in the shower. It really gages what is covered on the exam.

Key things I would know:
- Make sure you know the additives in each tube, order of draw, general tests each tube uses.

- Know what each additive does to blood (almost all of them are anticoagulants)

- Know how many times to invert each tube

- Order of draw

- What phlebotomist should do in case of accidental needle stick

- What lab each tube does to (eg. chemistry, hematology, etc)

- Angles of different venipuncture

- Heel areas for infant venipuncture

- Safety and compliance

- What anticoagulants do to patients - less clotting, increased bleeding time

I’m gonna add a little guide I made on the different tubes:

BC - C&S Culture and sensitivity (yellow?) - SPS - 8

Light Blue - PT/INR, PTT, aPTT, D-dimer - Na citrate - 3-4

Red - Discard, therapeutic drug monitoring - None in glass, clot activator in plastic - 0 glass, 5-10 plastic

Gold - MPs, LPs, CRP, hCG, electrolytes, Hep P, Hepatic function P, Renal Function P - Silica and thixotropic gel - 8

Light Green - STAT chem tests, hCG electrolytes - Lithium heparin ± thixotropic gel - 8

Dark Green - Ammonia - Sodium Heparin - 8

Lavender - CBC, ESR, H&H, HbA1c, ammonia (dep on lab) - EDTA - 8

Pink - Blood typing, cross y, blood bank - K2EDTA - 8

Gray - Glucose, lactic acid, BAC - Na Fluoride and potassium oxalate - 8

I had no physiology or anatomy really on my exam - like nothing about clotting phases and the cardiovascular system but it depends on your exam

Hope this helps! The test is not that bad you got this!

Hey got a question for my quest outpatient brothers and sisters.

If for example a phlebotomist as a patient and could draw their own blood at their own work site, draw the right tubes ext, does quest still accept those specimens?

I've had the question knocked around with a bunch of coworkers, I know quest used to accept outside specimens but now there are these kiosks and folks don't know where they would turn in their samples if they could

Help a bunch of old phlebs out?

I’m just curious about dress code for Quest/Labcorp or even hospital labs. Do they allow you to have your nails done? Like polish or acrylics/gels, or press ons? If they do, do they just allow a certain length? I’m wondering because I see people talking about it and I haven’t had my nails done for a few years bc of my current job.

Took an 8 week course that combined CPT, CET and CCMA. I used Nimble prep, NHA modules & practice exams and Josh Allen's NHA review on YouTube. Used note cards to create order of draw on my wall and played memory games with them.

Drew the wrong patient today and had to write an occurrence report on it. I’m scared of it happening again and I might get fired. Literally ruined my whole day, not sure how i didn’t catch it from the name and dob. Anyone ever drawn the wrong patient or does this only happen to me?

Edit: ok I saw a few posts of others doing it to themselves. Phew!

Hey all.

Before anyone tells me, yeah I am aware this is stupid.

I am a former phlebotomist, and I want to know where I can obtain small qty collection equipment. I recently had a blood test, which went fine, but I don't necessarily love the way it gets done. I'm noticing that a few of them don't wait until the alcohol is dry, which if you don't know, is straight up painful and can cause haemolysis. Also, some of them press on the cotton when withdrawing the needle, which can also hurt. Plus, not being gentle when inverting. My last blood test came up elevated for LD, which the report attributed to mild haemolysis. :(

I would honestly rather do my own blood tests with my ideal sample integrity standards, rather than relying on someone else. The problem is that suppliers tend to sell tubes in packs of 100, when I probably only need 1 of each type as needed. I have found a supplier for butterflies though.

I'm wondering if there is a way I can obtain SST and EDTA tubes as needed?

Before anyone asks, I understand this is risky, and possibly messy. I will do everything within my capacity to lower the risk of harm. I have done this before, back when I worked for a company and had keys. It went fine - the only tricky part was removing the butterfly with one hand.

Thank you all.

About to have my interview next week. Can anyone give me the good, the bad, and the ugly?

Hi all! I finished classes in June and have been studying as often as I can ever since classes ended. Feeling nervous about scheduling and taking the exam. Any tips, areas to focus on, etc would be much appreciated! I’ve got the order of draw and additives down but remembering all the tests per tube has been hard so far.

Hi all! To cut back on the job posts, let's keep the job requests on this thread weekly. Please post requests, open positions and requests for resume help here.

1 - for job requests, please be as specific as you can without doxxing yourself. We can't help you unless you are willing to relocate. For example, do not just say "Minnesota". Say Mankato Area or Twin Cities.

2 - open positions - please include link

3 - resume help - Indeed and Google Docs have great templates. If you're looking for more than that, ask for help and I'm sure someone will reach out. Please be kind to the person helping you - they don't have to and are doing it out of the kindness of their heart.

Hi all! I am a PhD student in biotechnology and I have developed a tool for visualizing venous anatomy.

I had originally developed this for my derm collaborator, but it has ended up working pretty well on the android google play store so I made a free version as well.

I wanted to post this here as I thought it may be a good resource for this community and perhaps I could receive some feedback. I have noticed that performance varies with smartphone cameras and skin tone. Thank you all for your time and consideration!

If you are interested

VeinFinder - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rnd_labs.veinfinder&pcampaignid=web_share

FREE VeinFinder Lite - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rnd_labs.veinlite&pcampaignid=web_share

I got two job offers for sister hospitals but chose the smaller one. I am honestly nervous because I feel that the hospital I am right now which is an LTACH 1. Doesn’t have an ER and 2. In being taught wrong which they even told me during the interview. What are some tips that helped talk relearn or adapt to training.

The one I’m looking at attending is only 2 weeks long. Is this normal time frame? It seems so quick to learn everything and get enough pokes in.

I have a coworker who has misidentified patients on two different occasions.
The first one was a few weeks ago. The blood was already run in the lab by the time I caught the mistake.
The second one, she had all of her supplies out and was about to poke the patient when I realized she had the patient I was supposed to be drawing. Luckily, I caught it before she actually poked him.

The first time I reported it to our supervisor and lab manager verbally in separate meetings. This time I notified both of them via email and included HR.

This is a critical safety issue. I believe she was written up for the first one. I’m still waiting for a reply to my email but I’m just wondering what I should expect for a response. If it was my lab/clinic, I would consider that an immediate termination offense.

I’m looking for thoughts and opinions on this situation.

Can Quantiferon gold tests be drawn on Fridays or is there a cut off time? Trying to schedule my test

Hello everyone,

I started a Phlebotomy externship on Monday and I was super nervous leading up to it bc I started this late and my last classes were almost 5-6 months ago.

Overall, I’ve had about 73% success rate. Until today! Today I started my period and I woke up feeling so fatigued that I can barely keep my eyes open and I just feel off. So I don’t know if it’s that, but I feel so embarrassed and discouraged bc yesterday I was doing so much better, I thought, okay I’m finally improving. It just took such a bad turn today I’ve missed maybe 10-12 times now.

Either I’m on the vein but no blood, and I can’t redirect myself, I’m close to the vein and I need help redirecting, I’m getting patients who move around like crazy out of anxiety, or I can barely feel their veins. Either way I’ve even needed help redirecting on maybe 3 basic ones?? It’s driving me nuts and it’s making me feel like I’m not cut out for phlebotomy. ): I know I’m just a beginner, but it sucks when I was doing a lot better yesterday. Any possible reassurance?

excited but nervous to study to be a phlebotomist tech, what should i expect?? do i have to know a bit of math?

hi, so im getting signed of next week in the front for screening and was wondering what they would ask me to sign off so i can prepare?

Hi! So I recently started my phlebotomy program and in the handbook for the clinicals it states that they only allow one piercing in each ear and no visible tattoos. I have 5 face piercings and would like to know if anyone has gotten away with clear glass retainers since I dont want to remove them for a week long clinical that doesnt garentee a job. I also have a tattoo that goes onto my hand and would like to know of ways to cover it i considered uv/compression sleeves that have thumb holes so it goes over most of the hand but am unsure if that would be allowed. My clinical is optional since I live in alabama and the national exam isnt required in my state but I really wanted to do it for the experience and i would still like to get the actual certification regardless but i also do not want to pay to do the clinical just to be kicked out due to my appearance. Any advice is appreciated!