Phlebotomist supporting statement: evidence for the role

A phlebotomist supporting statement should show how your experience matches the vacancy's patient communication, accuracy and training requirements. State clearly which tasks you have been trained to carry out and which you are applying to learn. Choose examples from your own experience for each essential criterion in the person specification.

Focus on the blood-taking role

The National Careers Service phlebotomist profile describes collecting blood samples and sending them for analysis and testing. Its duties include explaining the procedure and reassuring patients, labelling and delivering samples, completing records and entering data on a computer system.

Those duties suggest different evidence from a general account of helping people with personal care. If you already work as a healthcare assistant, identify the parts of your experience that answer this vacancy. Keep the healthcare assistant guide for that wider application.

Use the profile to understand the role, then return to the advert. A national description of possible duties does not establish that you have performed them, or that every vacancy asks for identical experience.

Separate trainee evidence from existing competence

The National Careers Service says: "There are no set entry requirements to become a trainee phlebotomist, although it may help to have a college qualification in healthcare or health and social care." Read the entry requirements in your own advert before deciding whether to apply. If it asks for a qualification or experience you lack, make that gap clear rather than assuming the profile overrides the employer.

For a trainee application, choose relevant examples of communicating calmly, following instructions and checking details. Explain your current experience and the training you want to undertake. If you have not yet trained to take blood, explain why you want to learn and give an example of acting on feedback.

For a post requiring existing phlebotomy experience, describe your actual training, the setting where you used it and the responsibility you held. Keep completed training separate from training that is booked or underway. Do not imply that observing a procedure means you carried it out yourself.

Gather evidence for the person specification

The first column draws on the National Careers Service's duties and skills. The other columns are planning prompts to use only where your vacancy asks for that evidence.

Role area in the national profile	If you have relevant training or experience	If you are applying as a trainee
Explaining the procedure and reassuring patients	Recall how you adapted an explanation and checked understanding	Recall a real occasion when you helped someone who felt anxious
Being thorough and paying attention to detail	Describe a check you performed within your responsibilities	Choose work or study where accuracy mattered and explain your check
Labelling and delivering samples	Describe your own responsibility under the procedures you followed	State honestly whether you have any sample-handling experience
Completing records and entering data	Recall an accurate entry, correction or handover you completed	Explain relevant administration or computer experience
Working well with others	Explain how you shared information or asked for help	Choose an occasion when you completed a task with colleagues

Keep clinical examples at the level needed to explain your work. The statement should describe your experience; it does not need instructions for performing a procedure. Remove patient identifiers and unnecessary clinical detail.

Plan one communication example

Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS FT advises applicants to show how they meet all essential criteria in supporting information and recommends STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result. Apply that sequence to a criterion from your own vacancy.

The practice criterion below is made up from the profile's communication duty. It is not a quotation from a particular job advert.

Criterion: "Ability to explain information clearly and reassure patients."

• When and where: identify the setting, the person's concern and your responsibility at the time.
• What you did: explain how you listened and adapted the information, including when you sought help from a colleague.
• What happened: describe the person's response or the next step you observed, and what you learned.

If your example comes from outside healthcare, name the actual setting and person accurately. Use it to evidence communication while keeping any clinical training requirement separate. Do not change a customer or service user into a patient to make the example sound closer to the role.

Before you submit

• Confirm whether the vacancy is for a trainee or someone with existing experience.
• Match each qualification and training claim to what you have completed.
• Give the accuracy and record-keeping criteria their own evidence where the pack asks for it.
• Check that your examples distinguish your actions from a colleague's work.
• Follow your form's stated limit; see the NHS Jobs supporting information guide for that form.

You can check the draft against the vacancy's criteria before submitting it.