Making the most of your phlebotomy and vein finding skills

The NHS

A phlebotomist in the NHS is normally paid as a band 2 or band 3. Working in the NHS can be fantastic experience, and a lot of people love the camaraderie, the feeling that comes with knowing you are helping real people, and the relatively stress free job. It can be monotonous, but in a good way, a 5 hour shift can fly by and you barely notice that home time has arrived. But it is not very well paid.

Whether you use your skills in the evenings and weekends, or take the brave step to strike out on your own, there is a lot of potential opportunities that can be unlocked through the simple of skill of being able to find a vein.

The Potential

The most I ever earned, as a phlebotomist, in one day, was £1,820! I must stress that this was one very good day, not every day can be this good, but it is a good example of the potential.

This was when I worked collecting stem cells from babies when they are born. You’re paid per collection in that job, and I still hold the company record for 13 collections in one 24hr period.

But that is an extreme example, so what is more realistic?

Depending on whether you’re just doing collections in your spare time, or setting up your own clinic, your potential income can vary. As a freelance phlebotomist collecting bloods in my spare time, I can earn anywhere from £400 – £750 extra a month to supplement my other income.

By working a couple of hours a day in my own clinic, I can earn over £100 an hour. If I offer more specialist services, like venesection / therapeutic blood letting, IV vitamin therapy, or PRP facials, I can charge £100s.

Becoming a Freelance Phlebotomist

Agencies

You can register with various agencies and networks, like ours, by filling in our recruitment form, or advertise your local services in your local community. You can take blood for patients that have a blood form from their GP, to return the bloods to the GP, or to take directly to the pathology lab in the hospital. Or you can take bloods from people have have ordered a testing kit from places like Medichecks (don’t forget our discount code of BLOODS10).

Clinics

You can offer your services on a mobile basis. But you don’t have to go to great expense to set up a bricks and mortar clinic. You can simply rent a room in a local health centre or hair / beauty salon. This cost as little as £10 an hour, with no ongoing commitments.

Of course if you start getting really busy, and start offering a range of services, you can rent a whole unit. Or set up a small clinical space at your own home.

CQC

If you perform diagnostic or screening procedures independently, you are now legally required to be registered with the CQC under the regulated activity of diagnostic and screening procedures. This requirement applies even if:

• Clients handle the dispatch of their own samples.
• You operate as a mobile phlebotomist visiting clients at home or workplaces.
• You are not responsible for analysing the samples.
• You perform finger-prick blood draws.
• You are NHS-registered and only occasionally perform private blood draws.

Please ensure you take the necessary steps to comply with this updated legal requirement. For full guidance, visit the CQC website. 

Other Registration

A phlebotomist does not have to register with any particular body, like a nurse or other health care professional does. However, it will reassure your patients, and give you more credibility if you you opt in to one of the associations that exist for phlebotomists, like the National Association of Phlebotomists, or the Phlebotomy Association.

Insurance

You will need to get insurance as a self-employed phlebotomist. The associations above offer insurance as part of their membership, or you can look at companies like MMI4U or inSync Insurance.

Insurance can cost as little as £75-£150 a year.

Equipment

You may need to buy some equipment, and a bag or case to store everything, you can get most of what you need from Medisave or even Amazon. Although the labs you work for may supply you with a lot of your equipment.

You may want to purchase some specialist equipment like a centrifuge which can be as cheap as £60-£90, or a vein finder.

Tax

If you earn over £1,000 a year from your self employed work, you will need to register with HMRC and complete a self assessment tax form. But the advantage of this is that you can claim mileage and other equipment as an expense against your tax.

You would only need to register for VAT is you turnover more than £90,000.

Other Services

Being able to find a vein means you can offer so much more than just taking blood.

IV Vitamin Therapy

If you can find a vein, you can learn to insert a cannula. And if you can learn to insert a cannula, then you can learn to administer an IV Vitamin Therapy cocktail, like the Myers cocktail.

This has the great benefit of delivering vitamins directly into the client’s blood stream, giving an instant effect for a range of benefits.

We offer business in a box courses to get you started in offering these services, which include a reputable supplier of the vitamins and equipment, a prescriber service, and all the forms and marketing materials you will need:

Plasma Rich Platelet (PRP) Therapy / Vampire Facials

PRP facials involve taking blood from a client, spinning it in a centrifuge, then separating the plasma to inject, or micro needle it into the clients face, or hair line.

The natural collagen in the plasma helps to stimulate growth of new cells, rejuvenating the skin.

It is even used by physiotherapists in joints, or by dentists and opticians.

You already know how to take the blood, now all you need to learn is how to separate it and reinject it into the client.

Venesection / Therapeutic Blood Letting

This is a service required by many clients. Certain conditions, like hemochromatosis, create too much iron and other substances in the blood. The only way to reduce this is to take out large quantities of blood on a regular basis.

And it can have therapeutic benefits, even when not linked to a specific condition, like giving your car an oil change.

Patients with these conditions are usually recommended to donate blood, but many aren’t able to, so they might require a private service.

Again, the key skill needed here is how to find a vein and insert a needle. It just takes a bit more training to learn how to use the specialist equipment required for venesection.

Other Wellness Treatments

Once you’ve opened the door to these wellness treatments, there are many avenues you can follow. For example IV Vitamin Therapy can lead to IM (Intramuscular) B12 injections. This could lead to travel or flu vaccinations, and other injections.

Or PRP therapy could lead to other beauty and wellness treatments, like fillers and Botox.

Ongoing Support

We are happy to support any phlebotomist who is looking to maximise their income, in any way we can. Please get in touch, and we can have a chat and get you started on your journey.

There is no catch or obligation to this, we genuinely want to see as many phlebotomists do as well as possible, and believe more opportunities will naturally arise from those conversations.

Your stories

These are some ideas of how you can squeeze every last drop out of being a phlebotomist, but leave a comment if you have found any other sources of income, or other ways to make the most out of your skills.

Starting your career as a phlebotomist

To train, or not to train

To be honest, training in the UK is inconsistent, unregulated and non-standardised. There are Trainee Phlebotomist roles out there that don’t require you to have any training. They will take completely untrained individuals and provide an extensive programme of in-house training.

However, if I’m looking at a CV (and we look at many here at Bloods & Beyond), even for an entry level role, and I can see an applicant has already attended a good quality venepuncture training course, giving them solid background knowledge and basic skills, they are instantly going to the top of my shortlist.

Our courses are specifically written to cover the CH132 National Occupational Standards for Obtaining Venous Blood Samples, ensuring you have all the knowledge you need to meet the minimum basic standards required by the NHS. You also benefit from becoming part of our network for the duration of your course to help supercharge your knowledge with the collective experience of over 100 phlebotomists.

What’s next?

But, once you’ve completed your training, what next? Where do you get your first opportunity?

Unlike other medical professions, there is no defined career pathway for phlebotomists. If you want to be a nurse, for example, the pathway is quite straight forward. Enrol on a nursing degree, and there will probably be a job waiting for you when you qualify.

For a phlebotomist, it is not quite that simple. Every phlebotomist has there own story to tell about how they got into the role.The right place, at the right time

I remember training a lady who started as the cleaner at her local GP. From here she got a job on the reception, and from here she was asked if she would like to learn to take blood to assist the over worked phlebotomist. So her practice manager sent her on one of our courses.

I work with several phlebotomists who got their first opportunity after volunteering in a vaccination centre during the COVID19 pandemic, and were given the opportunity to learn to take blood as part of this role.

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know

A lot of phlebotomists will get their first opportunity to shadow and take some bloods through a friend who might work in a phlebotomy clinic or a GP surgery. Or who might be happy to supervise them as they complete our In-house Supervision Competency Certificate.

Seize the opportunities

Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to have had opportunities like these handed to them. Knocking on the doors of local GP surgeries without an ‘in’ can be a slog, and comes down to your own gift of the gab to get you’re foot in the door.

GP surgeries are laws unto themselves. If they want to be helpful, they will be. But if they want to find a reason not to help, it’s hard to argue with them. It is possible though, we have seen many success stories of phlebotomists getting their first opportunities through sheer determined grit, and not taking no for an answer.

For example, if a GP surgery rejects your offer to volunteer because of insurance issues, go and get yourself some insurance. It costs about £75 a year from MMI4U.

If they think GDPR will be an issue, you can boost your CV with a short, online GDPR course.

Ultimately, they might still reject your advances, but at least they will have to simply admit that they don’t want to help, and you’ll be better prepared for the next opportunity.

If you really find yourself frustrated, we have worked hard to create a CPD accredited Competency Certificate to ensure you have the opportunity to work in our phlebotomy clinic in Bakersfield for a shift.

Do the hard yards

It’s important to recognise that you might not jump straight into your dream phlebotomy job. You have to do the hard yards to build up your experience. This could include shadowing, volunteering or working for a very small wage. If you can get yourself on the bank at your local hospital, it is hard work, for not great pay, but absolutely invaluable experience, and a job where you can pick and choose your hours to top up your experience as and when you feel like it.

Once you’ve accrued enough experience, you can apply for jobs with agencies, and could even come and work with us at Bloods & beyond.

It’s important to fail

We would dearly love to be able to offer all of our trainees a job straight after their course. But unfortunately, the nature of working as a mobile phlebotomist means that you will be working on your own, with no back up or support.

We normally recommend that you must have taken at least 100 bloods in a clinical setting before you go out on the road. And not 100 successful bloods. It’s really important that you’ve missed a few, and you understand how to deal with that situation when it arises.

But nothing makes me prouder than when a trainee gets back in touch with us after a few months, and we are able to add them to our network.

At the heart of Bloods & beyond is a hope to provide more opportunities to phlebotomists, to use their skills to maximise their income.

A great place to start

This won’t be true in every area, but some great places to look for your first role are:

Boots – Boots run private phlebotomy clinics and will offer on the job training to new phlebotomists.

Superdrug – Superdrug offer a very similar service.

The NHS Blood Service – This service are always looking for volunteers, who can turn into employees. You can start as a ‘Donor Carer’, looking after the donors, pouring the orange juices and ensuring the Clubs and Penguins are all nicely displayed. But this could soon grow in to the role of pre-screening and finger prick testing, and eventually sticking the great big needles into people.

Clinical Research – Don’t dismiss this area. You can get a job as an entry level lab technician, for which basic clinical and phlebotomy skills can be very important.

Your stories

Anyone who has been on one of my courses has heard my story about how I got started as a phlebotomist. Now I’m leaving the comments open for other phlebotomists to share their stories, and hopefully our trainee phlebotomists can gain more inspiration.