Drawing Blood is Like Riding a Bike

...I don't think sugar was the "sh" sounding word that she was thinking of...

Once you have been taught a skill and perform it for years, you never forget how to do it. Today, I realized that I had less than a week to pass my competency for drawing blood if I was going to work next Sunday. With some fancy pleading, I was able to hang out with my good friend A over at a Family Health Center versus the On campus patient care center. The difference?? Oh, about 40 years for the average age of patients. I got to stick some prime, young veins versus the senior coumadin crowd. Must say that I did okay, passed on one young lady who proceeded to yell "Sugar" when A drew her, I don't think sugar was the "sh" sounding word that she was thinking of.

The biggest difference for me is having to wear gloves for the whole procedure. Back in my day, we didn't wear gloves and liked it, course we didn't know any better. So I am back in the saddle again, ready to hit the road, in for the long haul, yep, I am officially a blood drawing Medical Technologist and not just the "suit" in the office. See, I can wear two hats and this old dog can learn new tricks.

So how was your Monday?

Blog Addiction- time for a new life?

Hi, my name is Jen and I just spent an evening reading medical blogs. Not just any evening, but a Friday evening.
Hey, Jen, get a life!
But seriously, I was able to get "hooked up" through just one random click to a blog written by nurse, thanks Laura , who had a ton of medical blogs listed on her blog. The one that hooked me for awhile was Lab Soft news.
On this blog I read an interesting account of a patient's experience with poor customer service at lab drawing station. Reading about the time spent waiting and the rudeness of the staff made me appreciate and respect the people that I work with who go above and beyond. Both of these women care about their employees and provide them with the skills and knowledge to be great phlebotomists and registrars who have excellent customer service skills. Maybe that's why they won't take me up on my offer to become competent to help out when short handed. LOL- I keep telling them, phlebotomy is like riding a bike and after 5 years of not doing one, I think I could be retrained. Only time will tell.....
But back to the blogs, I enjoyed the Thursday 13 and now have some ideas to think about. It was nice to get some comments and people reading my blogs. Thank you!