Where can a medical lab technician work and not perform venipuncture?
Asked by Brian R
I'm a MLT student and I have done venipuncture, it doesn't really bother me at all now. It is just something that I don't have any desire to do. I would rather work in the lab as opposed to directly interacting with patients. I heard that I would have to work in a reference lab to achieve this. Is that True? Or can I work in a hospital and not perform venipuncture on a regular basis?

Best Answer:
Large urban hospitals (500+ beds) generally don't require technical staff to draw blood as long as they have sufficient phlebotomy staff to cover all areas. I have been working for a 500+ bed hospital for 5 years as an MT and I have never heard of one of our MLTs or MTs being required to drawn blood. Even if a phlebotomist or 2 calls in sick, there are usually ECB (emergency call-back) phlebotomists on standby.
Medical Technologist/Clinical Laboratory Scientist - MT (ASCP), SM
Answered by Nightsaber

In most bigger hospitals a lot of the mlts do not do actual blood draws, but being a mlt, there may be times you have to draw blood to recheck the results, a perfect example is for a blood transfusion
Answered by cletus 72