Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Phlebotomist Version 2.0

So much has happened for the past two months of being away from my blog and I must say, it's hectic. I have so much in mind but for the sake of keeping this blog short, I will just put in here the most important ones. 

Well, I never thought I would be back in phlebotomy since I applied as a tech in this hospital. For 2 months, I am working as a phlebotomist to help out the short-staffed department. 

Unlike in the Philippines where we use warding trays, this time, we are using CARTS. Although the carts are heavier but it's got everything I need like blood culture bottles and bigger spaces for trash and sharps containers. It's paperless as well as it has a laptop where we can see the list of patients that needs to be drawn and indicates what tubes to use for that certain tests.

What's more is that we have this walkie talkie named Vocera which we use as our mode of communication between my phleb mates and nurses. It has cool features like it can locate your workmate, broadcast among the group, and call a nurse when you need help in getting the blood from the patients central line (PICC line).

Right now, we are assigned in overnights and had to clean up or finish two floors before our shift ends. After the shift, we rush to the kitchen to eat breakfast and rest for the whole day. 

There are two of us drawing blood from patients and there are times when we're stuck in the Emergency Room because of the STATS and Time-sensitive draws.

Because of the increasing cases of COVID-19, we need to protect ourselves by changing PPEs to each and every rooms we draw which a little bit of a hassle and time-consuming but it's for the safety of everybody. 

Rapid Response, Sepsis and STEMI alerts and especially Code Blues make me nervous. 

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