Gap year - become a phlebotomist?

Have you applied for it yet? I am also applying to be a phlebo.

On the person specification it says you need "NVQ in care related field" and "Venepuncture experience" both of which I do not have.

Did you have any of these when you applied?

You're joking right?

I've got three pages worth of competencies to get signed off to be able to do BMs monitoring... And don't even get me started on the obs competencies.

Yeah and I've got a file kicking about full of patient labels from observed bloodtaking, observed this observed that, a venepuncture and cannulation booklet, bla bla bla bla bla.

A lot of it is bull****, really, and most people know it. It's down to a combination of (a) trusts covering their backs and (b) the fact that you're working under the supervision of a registered nurse who doesn't want to be in front of the NMC because you, as a HCA, did something stupid, and they - the RN - therefore need all this paperwork to cover their backs. Fair enough.

And, of course, possibly (c) the fact that some registered (i.e. real) nurses hate you/the HCA role, and will patronise you in extremis, although I know that new nurses have to do all this competencies bull**** for simple tasks too..

Don't get me started on 'elearning' though..! Did you have to do that?

x

Hey I remember you from the Southampton med applicant thread

First off, sorry to hear about your rejections and it's good to see you're picking yourself up and focusing on improving your application and planning to making the most of a gap year

What I did was apply for a permanent HCA job in a hospital - I didn't mention anything about uni or medicine or leaving after a year. I just wanted "experience in a healthcare setting before I could decide on what I wanted to do"
I applied straight after my last exam and had the interviews, CRB checks inductions etc in place within a month and started in July.
HCA's generally only stay for a year anyway, which I imagine you would do and still have time for a holiday before uni anyways.
Venepuncture training doesn't take more than a few months at most, I did the theory day in September, did two days of taking blood non-stop (about 20 patients supervised) then did unsupervised practise for a month - I was signed off by November - it's not supposed to take long, you need to practise while the theory is still fresh in your mind and on-going practise is the essential bit

Anyway to cut a long-story short, I suggest you apply for a permanent HCA job in London and they will probably want to train you in phlebotomy. I'll PM you the hospital where I'm working at the moment (they are currently trying to get all of their HCA's trained in phlebotomy). You'd get the overall healthcare experience plus learning a clinical skill you will need in your medical career

Then this time next year, when you'll hopefully have your offer, you'd be a super expert at blood taking and have an amazing knack for patients that only comes from working as a HCA for 12 months , you can apply to be put on the hospital bank and have a £13-£15 per hour job waiting for you when you come back from uni in the holidays after boozing away your student loan

Hey,

I've been applying for phlebotomist / HCA jobs left, right and centre through NHS Jobs, but all of the feedback I've got from the HR people is that they want some sort of experience of working as an HCA, which I can't really get until I get a job

Thanks for the info anyway, and best of luck at Peninsula

Make sure you match the personal specs and the job specs in your thing, basically when they say "hca" experience it's any care experience, surely you've done voluntary work at an old peoples home or a similar setting, maybe even SJA or something as loosely connected at that.
That's what I did they said experience preferable but not necesary, if you talk about yourself and the care roles you provided that should tick the box, it's about getting the to interview phase by ticking boxes and then the rest is down to you.

Yeah, I have voluntary experience in a caring role at nursing home for dementia sufferers, but even then, it isn't a 'caring' role as such, as all I really do is play board games / do quizzes with them (although I do help feed them, so I suppose that's helpful ).

I also have medical work experience, where I also shadowed a team of nurses for a day, so I've mentioned that as well.

I guess I could copy and manipulate the medical / voluntary work experience paragraph from my personal statement

Cheers for the help though