When People Ask Me Why I’d Want to Be a Phlebotomist

Disclaimer: This is a joke. I am not actually deranged. While I do find blood absolutely fascinating, I would not put it that way. I just hate this question (not in a “it makes me genuinely angry” way, more just that it’s a stupid, unproductive question). I’ll get into why I think this further down if you really care about the answer.

Tws:
- Eye contact
- Talking about blood and blood-drawing (mostly only in the description below this)

For those who don’t know, Phlebotomy is the… art? (probably not the right word) of drawing blood. Those people who take blood from the inside of your elbow (the antecubital fossa) for blood tests are called Phlebotomists. Occasionally a nurse or doctor will do it, but the people hired for specifically for doing that are called Phlebotomists and I happen to have just been hired as one. This is not to be confused with Hematologists, who study blood, though Phlebotomists do on sight testing sometimes. Unlike Hematologists, Phlebotomists do not require a college education in all cases. Just a high school diploma and some medical knowledge, which I happen to have both of. I’m currently going to school for Medical Lab Science while I hold this job.

Anyway, onto why the aforementioned question pisses me off:

For the love of God, stopped discouraging people who have a passion for medicine, you absolute jackass. If you don’t think this applies to you, you’re fine. If you feel targeted, you should. You all have no idea how many people I’ve had asking me why I would want to work in Healthcare. And from healthcare workers that is understandable. Them saying that is not what I’m referring to. They work there. They have a right to diss it. Let me go over some of the things said directly to be or implied to me and why they’re stupid and/or rude (btw these were all said with a rude tone, it’s just hard to convey tone in text):

- “Healthcare is hard/dangerous” Not your business unless you’re a healthcare worker. I mean, if you want to have our hospitals be understaffed when you need one, go off and discourage aspiring healthcare workers, ig”

- “Why would you want to work with blood?” Not everyone faints at the sight of blood, Margaret. It’s common to be woozy around blood, but that doesn’t mean it’s weird for someone not to be.

- “Why not just be a doctor or nurse?” Doctors are in so much debt. I have a scholarship for 4 years. I am not rich enough for med school. Nurses aren’t as needed. There are hundreds of nursing students in my class. There are maybe 8 MLS students. I also hate interacting with people.

- (Not as mad about this one) “How are you afraid of needles and also a Phlebotomist?” It’s not bad enough that I can’t get over it with exposure therapy. I’m already mostly over it.

Just in general stop dissing peoples’ career choices. It’s annoying. But it’s also harmful when you’re actively pushing people away from careers that are REALLY important in our society and in extreme shortages right now.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Audio: https://youtube.com/shorts/dUSWWxyrJic?si=t5yKT3RJHCOY2vu3

Видео When People Ask Me Why I’d Want to Be a Phlebotomist канала The Core of Magic