Mariana Burgess- Obtaining a professional certification (6 points)

 In september, I officially completed a 5-week Certified Phlebotomy Technician course. Throughout this course I learned about different programs and agnecies throughout the medical field that play a role in the daily tasks of health professionals, I learned about the different types of sample collection and how to properly perform a blood draw. I was also able to practice drawing blood from both a finger stick and from the arm. 

Throughout this course, I realized that my stregths were the background knowledge of the way blood was drawn and its order, as well as different procedures and the process of drawing blood starting with greeting the patient. A strength of mine was also the actual blood drawing aspect when it came to located the best vein and deciding what type of needle and angle was best for doing the procedure. A lot of the information that was learned was also information that I had prior knowledge on from the science courses I have taken in the past. Somethings that I struggles with throughout this course was remebering which of the tube colors were to be used first in the order of draw. The order of draw is very important as different tubes contained different additives to manipulate a sample. 

I completed my coursework modules and took many practice tests and many hours of studying later I was proud to pass te 120 question exam with flying colors. I can now begin working as a CPT and earn clinical hours that benefit my journey to medical school. 

-Mariana Burgess 2027