Phlebotomist job description for veterans

Army 68K, Medical Laboratory Specialist, is the military occupation O*NET's crosswalk points at this civilian job, and the overlap is close. Phlebotomists collect blood for tests, transfusions, research, and donations, confirm who the patient is, label and log every tube, keep the tray and the draw area clean, and enter the data that travels with the sample. Hospitals employ 36 percent of the field and medical and diagnostic laboratories another 33 percent, which is why night, weekend, and holiday coverage is normal. Across 143,540 jobs the May 2025 median was $45,230, running from under $35,780 at the tenth percentile to over $58,780 at the ninetieth.

Core Duties and Responsibilities

Every phlebotomist puts disposing of contaminated sharps, in line with the applicable law and policy, at the very top of the job; nothing else is unanimous. Organizing and cleaning the blood-drawing tray, confirming every needle and syringe is first use, and matching laboratory requisition forms to specimen tubes come next, and the draw itself, by vacuum tube, syringe, or butterfly, falls in just under those. Beyond venipuncture there is dermal puncture by heel or finger stick, timed collections for therapeutic drug levels, standards tests such as blood alcohol, blood cultures, glucose tolerance, and smears, hemoglobin checks on donors, and the paperwork that tracks a specimen from collection through to analysis.

Common Skills and Technologies

The two skills that lead here are a genuine willingness to look after someone and an eye for the person in the chair, who is usually nervous and has to hold still for the technique to work. Employers ask for the ordinary office suite more than anything else, MEDITECH appears on the records side, and spreadsheets handle logs and scheduling. Everything else in the kit is physical: tubes, needles, butterfly sets, requisition forms, and a transport container.

Education, Training, and Career Path

Training is a postsecondary program, not a degree course: close to half the field holds a certificate from one, and about a third came in on a high school diploma. Some employers prefer a professional certification and some states require one, so the answer depends on where you plan to work. Either way, expect a year or two of drawing under supervision before anyone leaves you to it. Reported titles include patient service technician and mobile examiner, and the related occupations run toward medical and clinical laboratory technician work.

Sources: O*NET 30.0, 31-9097.00 Phlebotomists, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/31-9097.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 31-9097, https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes319097.htm.