Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To collect blood samples from patients through venepuncture as requested by clinicians and other appropriately authorised doctors and health professionals. To collect blood samples safely with due respect to the dignity of patients, and the needs of other clinical services. To ensure blood samples are collected in appropriate containers, labelled correctly, and prepared and dispatched to relevant laboratory sections in a timely and correct manner. To contribute to the provision of an efficient, high-quality service and ensure that proficiency and competence and personal and professional standards of that group are maintained.

MAIN DUTIES

Communication

·         To ensure effective communication with all staff, patients and relatives/carers demonstrating politeness and empathy, always maintaining confidentiality.

·         To work closely with medical, nursing, laboratory, and phlebotomy staff to provide a rapid collection service, in line with the requirements of Whittington Hospital NHS Trust and outreach sites.

·         To ensure all the relevant information is relayed to clinical, nursing or laboratory staff in a timely manner.

·         Able to demonstrate customer care skills when listening to concerns, dealing courteously with visitors, staff, and patients and when using the telephone.

·         To identify when there are special needs for individual patients and help communicate this in the appropriate way.

Patient Care

·         Co-operate with clinical, administrative and managerial colleagues to understand their roles within the team and appreciate patient priorities.

·         Deliver care to all patients regardless of their values, customs, gender, race, culture, religion or preferences. 

·         Deliver care that always upholds patients’ privacy and dignity. 

·     Report any clinical concerns or abnormalities to a registered professional.  

·         Check that relevant equipment is available and in working order, reporting any defects to the relevant staff. 

·         Receive, check and unpack deliveries to the unit and report on stock levels.

Managing – people and resources

To help maintain adequate stock levels of blood collection bottles and consumables for the department.

Personal and People Development

·         To actively participate in yearly appraisals and annual staff reviews 

·         Participate in the Trust Mandatory Training Programme.

Physical Skills

To demonstrate confidently how to deal with body fluids and other hazardous substances and use discretion.

To have good hand eye co-ordination and use manual dexterity involving fine manipulative and repetitive movements essential for the procedure of taking blood in a safe and accurate way.

To be able to comfort and reassure patients.

Be confident in drawing blood from critically ill, vulnerable, and elderly patients

Health and Safety, security, and trust policies

To understand and comply with all Trust Policies and Procedures

To understand and adhere to the Trust policy and infection control principal standards to minimise risk to patients and ensure high quality care. 

To be responsible for the daily cleaning of phlebotomy work areas (cubicles, trolleys etc) and make sure they are disinfected and re-stocked on a regular basis. To make sure they are kept clean and tidy to maintain patient confidence and prevent infection.

To respect patient confidentiality and in particular the confidentiality of electronically stored data in line with the Data Protection Act (1998) and follow the Caldicott principles and common law duty of confidentiality.

To follow the record keeping guidelines established by the Trust and ensure compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.

The post holder must be aware of individual responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act and identify and report as necessary any untoward accident, incident or potentially hazardous environment. 

Quality

·         The post holder is expected to collect blood samples from all patients in any clinical setting as requested by an authorised manager, by means of venepuncture, using the method most appropriate to the individual patient’s needs and requirements.

·         The post holder is expected to ensure that the required identification details are checked on every patient before the phlebotomy procedure is performed. 

·         The post holder is expected to collect blood samples for a wide variety of tests, the correct volume of which must be collected into the appropriate blood specimen tubes.

·         Blood sample tubes must be labelled with the details of the relevant patient. Sample tubes should be labelled manually with all of the required information at the bedside and in the presence of the patient, or a sticky label must be applied if available.

·         The post holder is legally required to legibly and accurately label all blood transfusion sample tubes manually. 

·         The post holder is expected to maintain the quality of blood samples at all relevant stages in line with established procedures and protocols.

·         The post holder is expected to participate in research, audit and quality initiatives.

·         The post holder is expected to handle and process blood samples in a way that:

·         is consistent with the indicated degree of risk or urgency;

·         maintains the required quality and integrity;

·         ensures that the samples are matched with the relevant forms and/or other documentation;

·         is appropriate to the nature and stage of a patient’s treatment;

·         is appropriate to the nature and condition of the sample.     

·         The post holder is required to contribute to continuous quality and service improvement 

The job description is not intended to be exhaustive and it is likely that duties may be altered from time to time in the light of changing circumstances and after consultation with the post holder.