Medical assistants work within a variety of healthcare settings and perform many duties. In New Jersey and Pennsylvania, one of their many duties includes performing phlebotomy. They may use this medical practice to draw blood from the body or administer fluid to it.
It takes an assortment of behaviors and disciplines to perform phlebotomy-related work effectively. Learning through Prism Career Institute’s Medical Assistant program can instill these practices within students. We offer this program at our locations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Cherry Hill and West Atlantic City, New Jersey. Here, we discuss the required phlebotomy skills for a successful medical assistant career.
Technical Phlebotomy Skills
Phlebotomy involves working with several different pieces of medical equipment and tools. It also requires thoroughly following steps for specific procedures and caring for collected samples. A medical assistant must prioritize patient care, use items safely, and protect samples from contamination.
The technical phlebotomy skills a medical assistant needs include:
- Applying medical knowledge: This involves understanding different phlebotomy aspects, such as blood types, anatomy, physiology, and potential issues during a blood draw.
- Being familiar with technology: Medical assistants should know how to operate whatever machines they use, gain access to their workplace’s computer network, and enter data.
- Keeping a clean environment: Assistants should wash their hands regularly and sanitize their equipment.
- Sample management: All samples collected must be documented, labeled, and sorted correctly.
- Material disposal: This skill refers to properly throwing away personal protective equipment (PPE) after using it, as well as safely discarding needles and biohazardous waste.
- Performing quality control: To preserve samples, assistants must transport them correctly and follow storage protocols.
- Preventing infections: An assistant must thoroughly clean an area of skin before inserting and after removing a needle, keeping bloodborne diseases from spreading.
- Troubleshooting: Medical assistants must immediately address any equipment issues.
- Understanding venipuncture and capillary puncture practices: An assistant should be able to identify veins, use sample tubes properly, and know how to apply a tourniquet.
- Using needles correctly: An assistant’s hand-eye condition allows them to insert needles into veins accurately and to collect the right amount of blood for a sample.
Personal Phlebotomy Skills
Mastering technical phlebotomy skills is only part of a medical assistant’s job. They interact with many patients, families, and coworkers and must manage various situations. The personal skills to manage workplace scenarios calmly can be developed from medical assistant school and firsthand experiences in externships. Applying these principles helps an assistant become a trusted colleague and patient care provider.
The ideal medical assistant should have personal characteristics such as:
- Being a team player: Medical assistants must effectively collaborate with their colleagues to provide the best care possible.
- Behaving ethically and professionally: Medical assistants should conduct their time with all patients appropriately, work in their best interests, and protect their health information.
- Bringing a positive attitude: An assistant’s warm demeanor can settle a nervous patient or improve morale within a healthcare facility.
- Communicating effectively: By talking through each phlebotomy step or engaging in other conversation topics, an assistant can help ease a worried patient.
- Dealing with stress: Even within a hectic healthcare setting, assistants must stay calm.
- Demonstrating adaptability: Medical assistants must respond to different patient personalities, types of phlebotomy procedures, and circumstances that occur within a workplace.
- Listening attentively: Assistants need to know if a patient has any allergies or what medications they take before performing a phlebotomy procedure.
- Managing time effectively: By performing their tasks promptly, an assistant helps ensure that a physician can review samples to determine a patient’s condition.
- Paying attention to detail: A patient may feel dizzy or faint after a blood draw, so an assistant needs to observe them carefully and quickly provide care if needed.
- Showing compassion and empathy: As many as two out of three people fear needles. During a phlebotomy procedure, a medical assistant must acknowledge any patient’s concern and help calm them.
Learn Phlebotomy Skills for a Medical Assistant Career
Using phlebotomy skills as a medical assistant requires knowing how to perform procedures and show care within a professional environment. Students can learn phlebotomy concepts in a classroom, but other disciplines are best developed through firsthand experiences. Prism Career Institute’s Medical Assistant program provides both resources. Students can learn vital information from our instructors and then apply that knowledge through work in the field. After completing our MA program, graduates can take the certification exam for phlebotomy to become certified.
We offer day classes at our Philadelphia location with daytime and nighttime classes at our New Jersey locations in Cherry Hill and West Atlantic City. By utilizing our career services department, students can develop a sense of their professional outlook before graduation. We also provide financial aid to students who qualify. Apply online today to begin your journey or contact us to learn more about our medical assistant program.