(upbeat music) (air whooshing) - So my name is Melony Tzounakos-Helm.

I'm a phlebotomist II, soon to be a phlebotomist III, and I'm also a preceptor here at Geisinger Danville.

(upbeat music continues) So a phlebotomist is responsible for obtaining blood specimens from patients using venipuncture, so inserting a needle into the vein.

And then we're also responsible for labeling and shipping and handling of that specimen to the lab.

(air whooshing) So, I park my motorcycle already outside the emergency room.

(laughing) I come in, I get my Rover, I get my printer, I get my cart ready, I gather everything I need for the day.

I'm either in the emergency room or inpatient.

I also do outpatient.

I do pediatrics.

I gather everything up, I go up to the floors, I take a look at my Rover.

It tells me which patients, what times do to the draws, what they're gonna have drawn.

(air whooshing) I pull the tubes out.

I go in, you go in, you introduce yourself, and then you prepare the site and you do the draw.

You bring everything back out to the cart.

You're gonna label everything, scan it all in, package it, and make sure it's sent within a timely manner.

I do about 25 to 45 sticks a day on average and upwards of 60 to 70 sticks on one of my longer days.

(air whooshing) The very first thing you have to have is communication skills.

You have to be able to talk, not only with your patients, but the other team members, not just in phlebotomy, but nursing, doctors, aides.

Everyone around you is part of your team.

It's not just you.

You have to be willing to work with people, but also work solo.

'Cause we're not gonna hold your hand as you're coming into a room.

You're gonna be going in by yourself.

Computer skills are needed.

People skills are needed.

Dexterity, fine motor skills are important.

(air whooshing) I went through the School of Phlebotomy here at Geisinger.

So I gained a lot of knowledge through there.

It was a great foundation.

I came in, I accepted a job before I was even graduated.

And then I just built my skills from there.

You just take it one stick at a time.

(air whooshing) It starts at about 34,000 a year, and with the potential to like about 50,000 a year.

(air whooshing) Before I did any of this, I was in graphics and photography for 20 years.

So this was a huge leap and jump.

Photography is still one of my passions.

I'm big into kayaking, geocaching, hiking.

Nice to be able to afford all my hobbies there, but it gave me a little bit more freedom from just being a work-from-home parent who was running her own small business that we were just affording the bills, to having a nice nest egg now.

(air whooshing) (light music) The phlebotomist is important because 70% of all diagnoses, all treatments, come from what they get in the labs.

Without us, the doctors, they don't know what to go off of.

They're really just guessing.

So we work with them.

Nobody's above, nobody's below, we're all a team.

There's a huge shortage in lab personnel, both front line, which is us phlebotomists, and also our lab department.

So, even if coming into phlebotomy, you can transition up into the lab as well and it's all needed.

My day is filled with 10-minute moments.

Every patient is a 10-minute moment where I get to be either a positive or negative in their life.

They're scared.

They don't know what's going on, and they're just either starting their journey or they're continuing through their journey to diagnosis, treatment, and eventually, hopefully, cure.

And I can use all my knowledge and my experience to either be that positive or be that negative.

So I get to have 10-minute moments all day long where I'm not just a positive or a negative towards them, but they're also a positive and negative towards me.

And that's, there's no words for that.

(light music continues)