Should I Be Nationally Certified?

A few years ago, when I was working as a phlebotomy instructor, I requested a meeting with a phlebotomy supervisor at a local (and relatively large) healthcare organization. I wanted to discuss expectations for new phlebotomy hires and see if the students we were training were meeting those expectations. Hearing the opinions of local industry workers can be incredibly insightful and lets us know what we can improve to ensure we provide qualified candidates for hire.

Somewhere throughout our conversation, I asked her if she had a preference about her employees being nationally certified or not. To my surprise, she informed me that she didn't want phlebotomists who were nationally certified. She said that when a student is nationally certified, it doesn't actually mean that they know anything, and it doesn't prove anything to her. She preferred that they were not nationally certified and told me that whenever she hired a new phlebotomist, she gave them "The Phlebotomy Bible," a document that she had created herself and expected new hires to memorize. 

Her answer surprised me (shocked me honestly), because everything we taught to students in class was also applicable to the national test. All of it was important. I questioned further, thinking that maybe her priority of book knowledge was just not as important to her as hands-on skills. To my dismay, she told me that she believed that the national test taught students to do things differently than she liked. It gave them "bad habits" that she had to un-teach during training. 

I asked her several more questions, and her answers to all of them left me confused. One, for example, was if she expected phlebotomists to know the order-of-draw when she hired them. She didn't know what I was talking about. I had to explain that I was referring to the order in which blood tubes were collected. "Oh, that," she said. "It doesn't matter to me. The computer prints out the labels in a certain order, and that is how we collect them." 

I really hope that the computer printed out the labels in the correct order of draw, but even if it did, a phlebotomist not knowing the correct order of draw is a terrible flaw - one that can lead to devastating results. The more we talked, the more concerned I became about how she was training her staff. It was probably more like un-training them. 

Unfortunately, I have run into a few people with a mentality like hers, but most supervisors strongly value a phlebotomist who has taken the extra step to become nationally certified. Some require it before even considering an applicant. This shows that they have learned the book knowledge, along with developing the hands-on skills to perform the job properly. 

Another positive aspect of being nationally certified is the continuing education required every year to keep it current. Healthcare is an ever-changing, ever-advancing field. Phlebotomists and other healthcare workers must keep themselves up-to-date, or they simply are not functioning at the highest standard of care. The phlebotomy supervisor in my story could have benefited greatly from some updated education but she was either unwilling to learn, or simply did not recognize the importance. 

Of course, a phlebotomist can still have poor interpersonal skills or incorrect blood collection techniques while also being nationally certified, but the value of having that extra certification shows the education and experience of a phlebotomist. It's worth noting and gives (most) supervisors some extra confidence in that phlebotomist. I believe that as time goes on, having that certification will become standard for all phlebotomists. I wish it were that way now, but it is something that will hopefully become expected. It is never a bad thing to expand our knowledge and grow as a person, especially with how crucial the role of a phlebotomist is today. 

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