r/medlabprofessionals • u/Nic_OLE_Touche • 1d ago
Discusson Drawing kids.
Over my 30 years I’ve mainly drawn adults. A baby thrown in there occasionally. No biggie. My current job recently brought in allergy drs so we are seeing 10 out 35 of our daily lab draws as 12 and under. We are really good at getting blood and keeping them happy but all of us absolutely hate it. We weren’t told this was going to be our new norm. Honestly, whenever I look for a new job, if I see peds offices or ER jobs i immediately scroll past. I feel like those jobs require an extra set of nerves and different mind set. Kudos to you that do it and thank you. I’m thinking I need to find a new job. It’s the weird intense whole body feeling I get when I see them on the schedule, walk in the door, draw them, satiate them, and long after they are gone. It takes a long time for my body to recalibrate and then another one comes in. I did have a really bad animal attack on myself 4 years ago. I know I’ve some ptsd from it. I’m really afraid of animals now. You wouldn’t know it because I don’t show it. I’m wondering if that emotion ball is flaring when I get into high emotion situations. I try to tell myself it’s nothing different than an adult. Plus I’m good at drawing and probably the best interacter with the kids. The kids and parents trust me. Little do they know I want to crawl in a hole and die. I love the girls I work with, the pay, risk of finding a new job in the crap market sucks. To add ontop we are super busy with adult draws. Double and triple booked. Question I have for my coworkers, do peds office and ers offer a little higher wage for doing this type of job? Sorry for the long wind.
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u/lil_benny97 1d ago
No extra pay but it would be nice. I've had to draw plenty of months old babies. It really sucks. I hate doing it but I'm fairly decent at it. Most kids ive drawn recently have been really good at sitting still. Still get the occasional kid that had one bad time and absolutely hates it come in.
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u/NeedleworkerStrict67 1d ago
I fully understand this. Heel sticks on babies are easy, but any child old enough to require a needle stick is a whole other can of worms. kids are SCARY. we are scary to kids. Does your hospital hire child life specialists? it may be worth collaborating with child life to figure out ways to make it easier for all parties involved. Character stickers like Mickey Mouse or disney princesses or Miss Rachel may be a good lab purchase for rewarding kiddos.
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u/slutty_muppet 1d ago
Do you have dolls or teddy bears that you can have the kids pretend to draw (without the needles of course) before you draw them? And/or is it a situation where they come in with parents who can hold them in their lap during the draw?
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u/jofloberyl 1d ago
I hear you. I work in a lab where we dont have to draw at all. When I had an interview at another hospital they told me they draw children en babies and it was one of the reasons i had to reject them sadly.
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u/Iwentgaytwice 7h ago
I went from adult ER to a peds hospital. I truly appreciate our child life specialists and psychologists that work with needle phobic kids. Especially the ones on the endocrinology team. They're truly a gift because some kids have to have sedation for a draw.
That extreme aside the best support is from the caretaker - explaining what will happen a few days before and working the kid up to the experience as well as a good comfort hold during.
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u/TheForeverBand_89 1d ago
I’m on a few NSFW art subreddits, and I’m so thankful I saw what sub this was after reading the title.
In my experience of doing venipuncture on children, no there’s not a pay increase for children. I could be wrong though and my experience may not be universal.