Medical students nowadays often report difficulty in gaining experience in performing routine venepuncture. In the past, students were regularly expected to take blood from hospital patients, allowing them to become very competent in the procedure before qualification. However, phlebotomists now do the majority of in-patient venepuncture, leaving few opportunities for students to learn and improve their confidence with this procedure.
One excellent way to overcome this problem is for GP practices to take on students as phlebotomists. This benefits both the student and the practice staff. Not only is the student given extensive opportunities to practice blood-taking, but he or she also gains experience of working efficiently in a clinical setting and putting knowledge from medical school into practice. In addition, if the post is paid, this can help fund student life (although many students will still be prepared to undertake this work on a voluntary basis).
Having a medical student phlebotomist allows the practice to offer more appointments for venepuncture and allows practice nurses to carry out more specific nursing tasks. The university holidays are times when practice staff will want to take holiday, so the student can be employed on a regular basis during the vacation periods. Staff can delegate simple patients to the medical student for venepuncture and blood pressure monitoring, in order to focus their own time on more complex patients or on management tasks.
As a medical student, I was extremely keen to work as a phlebotomist when the opportunity arose and have now worked at the same GP practice for three vacation periods. Due to my relative inexperience with venepuncture initially, I was given 4?days of training by the practice nurse. Learning to use the computer system was also an important skill that I had to get to grips with early on. There is no doubt that my ability to communicate and relate to patients has really been enhanced by this experience.
It appears that taking on medical students as phlebotomists is uncommon in general practice, even on a voluntary basis. This seems a shame as employing a student to take blood can be highly advantageous to everyone involved. We would really urge GPs to consider this option in the future when approached by medical students.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2012