Parkview celebrates fifth phlebotomy school graduation

(Pueblo, CO, April 17, 2019) – Parkview Medical Center has reached a milestone this month in its efforts to train quality phlebotomists.

Parkview opened its school of phlebotomy in 2017. The program will celebrate its fifth graduation on Friday, recognizing eight students who completed a 15-week course to earn a certification from the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and possibly a job at Parkview Medical Center.

“Phlebotomists are the face of the lab,” said Jamie Wells, phlebotomy educator at Parkview Medical Center.

Students who go through the course learn the basics of phlebotomy, which not only includes how to properly draw blood from a patient, but also a basic understanding of what the various tests are for, how they work,  and how to interact with patients.

At Parkview, patients and guests  will know phlebotomists by their tan scrubs and toolboxes filled with plastic vials and needles. They are a crucial first step in the efforts to properly diagnose patients. Wells said somewhere near 70 percent of hospital diagnoses will involve the work done in the hospital labroatory and that work almost always stars with a blood draw at the patient’s bedside.

Following Friday’s graduation, the Parkview School of Phlebotomy will have graduated 32 phlebotomists and hired 18. The school is helpful to the medical center in its efforts to fill out the ranks of open phlebotomists but its mission is broader.

Graduates of the program aren’t guaranteed jobs at Parkview. They must still go through the application and interview process with the hospital.

“We really try to put good quality phlebotomists back out into the community,” Wells said.

Eight more will be christened at a closed ceremony Friday.