I can’t believe it’s almost the end of April and there’s only 3 weeks of classes left! This month has kept me busy with our regular workload and a group project, but now that the term is ending, things are winding down and we’re pretty much tying up the loose ends on what we need to know before going on our practicum. That and studying for the upcoming final exams, of course. Since we’re still largely in the dark about the details of our practicum (we’ll have a meeting closer towards the end of the term), I’m going to recount my experience doing the phlebotomy practicum, which was almost a year ago!
The phlebotomy practicum lasts 2 weeks long and takes place in late May / early June, right after level 1 ends. I did my placement at St. Paul’s Hospital in downtown Vancouver. The practicum experience differs from site to site obviously, but basically the goal is for us to be comfortable performing phlebotomy and obtaining good quality blood samples from patients.
At St. Paul’s, each student was assigned to a different section of the hospital every day. This included places like the ER, maternity wards, and the outpatient clinic. We also had the opportunity to work in the Accessioning area of the lab, where incoming samples are sorted and sent to the appropriate departments for processing.
We worked 6-hour shifts, usually starting at 7 AM, although we each got to work one evening shift. At the start of each shift we would report to the lab coordinator, who would then assign each of us to a lab assistant who would become our supervisor for the day. We would then follow our respective supervisor to his or her assigned area for the whole day. Before heading out of the lab, each lab assistant would collect the requisition forms (i.e. lab test orders) for the patients located in their assigned area. This is important for knowing what kind of samples to collect, since different types of samples are required for different tests. For example, most chemistry tests use serum, but in hematology usually whole blood is needed. Different types of collection tubes are available to yield the type of sample we need.
After collecting the requisition forms and corresponding labels for the tubes, we were off to collect blood! During the first few days I started out by watching my supervisor (a different person every day) and observing their individual techniques. Every lab assistant has a different way of doing things, some of which we weren’t taught in our Specimen Procurement class. I was super nervous the first few days, but by the end of the first week I was a lot more at ease and could collect blood quite easily from the healthier patients, especially outpatients. It was still a challenge to collect from the sicker patients though.
Our goal for the practicum was to get 50 successful collections. By the end of my 2 weeks I had doubled that number, most of which came from the outpatients. During my shift at the outpatient clinic I could easily collect 20+ a day. Unfortunately it’s not as easy to get such a high number when going around the wards. Some days I would only get a handful of successful collections, especially when going to the more challenging wards like the ICU. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to meet my quota, but by the end of the 2 weeks everyone should be able to get at least that number, if not many more. Those going to larger hospitals or private labs should have no problem getting 50; those going to smaller/lower volume hospitals might need the whole 2 weeks to reach the quota. It all depends on the patient volume of the clinical site.
I hope this post is helpful to those who are starting their practicum next month. Recounting my experience is getting me excited to go back to the hospital again. I can’t wait till July!