News

‘Blood Brothers’ on Fast Track To Rewarding Health Careers

06.18.14

Call them blood brothers, if you like. They are brothers who have taken up careers in phlebotomy – the process of taking blood from the body for medical purposes.

            These Army veterans have worked as truck drivers, plumbers and other things, but decided medical careers would provide a quality working environment, pay better and give them the opportunity to help people. So, after researching the cost and length of area programs, they enrolled in the Phlebotomy Technician program at Hill College’s Johnson County Campus last February. They will soon be certified phlebotomists. They hope to continue their educations to become registered nurses.

            “The more you learn, the more you earn,” said older brother Kent Beck.  His sibling Corey Beck agreed, but quickly added that it’s not all about money. “It’s good to have money, but the way we were raised, if you are going to do something you should do it right. I wouldn’t want to go into a hospital and be treated by someone who looks at it as just a job, so I’m not going to be that way either.  I know Kent is the same way.”

            Graduates of Cleburne High School, they are sons of parents who worked in the medical field. After completing their Army Airborne service, they found themselves digging ditches as plumber apprentices, it occurred to the Beck brothers that there might be a better way to make a living.

            The phlebotomy program is fast and intense. It involves five weeks of classroom and 120 hours of clinicals, in which time they had to do 100 sticks, which is the term for inserting a hypodermic needle into a vein to draw blood. The Beck brothers had the idea that by quickly qualifying for this job, they could work in a medical facility and among medical professionals while continuing to work toward their RN.

            “We are both working as servers at Logan’s Roadhouse in Burleson right now, and at least four of our co-workers want to do what we are doing. I mean, we are going to learn so much more about medicine by working in a clinic or a hospital than we would by serving tables or being plumbers while going to school,” Corey said.

            “One co-worker there who is working on her RN says she wishes she had done it this way,” Kent added.

            The clinics where they did their clinicals have already expressed an interest in hiring them, they said.

            For more information on the Hill College phlebotomy program or any of the fast track health careers offered, visit www.hillcollege.edu/cwe, or call 817.760.5510.