u/Idkumhey

Sorry if this has been asked before. I'm currently an undergrad working towards CLS/MLS but I feel like I work super slow in all my college lab classes and am worried I wouldn't be efficient enough in the lab. I know the actual job is different, but I'm always the last person to finish in my lab classes and I'm worried I'd be a slow worker too. My biggest fear would be a patient dying because I couldn't get their results done fast enough.

How common is it for a patient to die because you weren't able to work fast enough? Is med lab work usually fast paced other than blood bank (especially generalist or microbiology), and is it okay to be slow when you're first starting out? Did clinicals help you get faster?

CLS programs will likely only get more competitive in California, so I'm strongly considering out of state programs... but the thing that worries me is paying for and finding housing, so I have some questions for people who went to an out of state program.

You're usually discouraged/unable to work during the program, so how were you able to afford paying for housing out of state for a year? Did you just save up enough money for the entire duration of the program or were you able to get a loan? If you got a loan for housing, was it easy to pay off and would you recommend this option?

Did the university you did your program at offer housing/dorms even though it's just a certification program? If not, how did you find housing + will it be harder to find as someone who hasn't rented before?

In general did doing the program out of state vs. in CA put you in a lot of debt?

Getting my phleb license soon and plasma centers will probably be the easiest to get a job at due to my school schedule (part-time for labcorp and quest are only in the morning where I live). I have classes in the morning on two days of the week, and beyond that I'm fully available after the afternoon on those days and open availability besides that. Are plasma centers like Biolife, Octopharma, CSL, etc. willing to accommodate this for part time positions? Or is there no point in applying if you don't have full open availability?

In job postings for Biolife I see them say that their part-time positions have flexibility, but can anyone who's worked there say how true this is?

I'm starting my externship soon but am nervous about how patients will react to me saying I'm a student, not getting blood, etc. I don't have a lot of customer service or patient experience so I'm nervous about how to deal with rude patients.

Has anyone experienced rudeness from patients during your externship due to you being a student, and especially when you aren't successful at drawing blood? How do you deal with patients who think you don't know what you're doing? And did you experience a lot of patients requesting to be drawn by a different phlebotomist?

Hello everyone, I get my phlebotomist license in a few months and am hoping to use it to get clinical lab experience, but am prepared for it to take a while to find a job.

For people who had phlebotomy/clinical lab experience before applying to programs: were you able to find a job while in school and how long did it take? Or did you need to take a gap year to work before applying?