An analysis on phlebotomists in tertiary hospital regarding their perceived values toward phlebotomy certification / Nur Anisah Noor Habibullah

In Malaysia, there is no specific post for phlebotomist hence this study will be focusing on healthcare providers who involved in blood collection in several tertiary hospitals. Some countries allow only certified phlebotomist to perform blood sampling and handling. The study would be to analyze the perceived value in both certified and non-certified phlebotomists towards the phlebotomy in Malaysia. Moreover, the aim is to identify the barriers in acquiring phlebotomy certification among non-certified healthcare workers and to determine the occupational outcome by having the certification. The method of this study is by survey method and has been approved by the Ethic committee of UiTM to be done at Hospital Alor Setar, Kedah, Hospital Taiping, Perak, Hospital Kemaman and Hospital Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu. The questionnaires are modified from the previous study and are distributed from January to February 2016 and will be analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. In this study, the derived outcome was all phlebotomists value the certification. The majority of both certified and non-certified phlebotomists agree with intrinsic values statement about the certification and the certified phlebotomists agreed to a statistically higher scale. The result is then analyzed using Mann-Whitney U test which shows only three of the eighteen statement of perceived value have statistically significant differences between certified and non-certified. In this study, we also found that the primary barriers among non-certified regarding acquire certification are no time, not relevant and no recognition. In conclusion, both certified and non-certified agree with the perceived value statements on the intrinsic value. However, some of the phlebotomists believe that extrinsic factors influence the obtaining of certification. Keywords: phlebotomist, perceived value, Malaysia, tertiary hospital, phlebotomy certification.