NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State University’s Office of Electronic and Continuing Education will be offering an online and face to face phlebotomy technician training course starting later this month.  

The online course will be offered on NSU’s Cenla campus at 1410 Neal Kearby Blvd. in Alexandria starting on with an in person meeting on Monday, Sept. 25 at 6 p.m. The course in Natchitoches will be in person beginning Monday, Oct. 9 at 6 p.m. on the second floor of South Hall.  

This nine-week course is broken down into three parts. The first part is the face-to-face orientation class meeting. The second part will be eight weeks of online classroom instruction. The last part will be a face-to-face, hands-on-portion which will meet Nov. 27 – Dec. 1 at the NSU Cenla Campus from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. 

For those taking the class in Natchitoches, the class begins with the mandatory face-to-face orientation class meeting. The second part is classroom instruction each Monday and Wednesday from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. The national exam will be on Dec. 13. 

This course is designed to teach entry-level phlebotomy skills to students interested in pursuing a career in phlebotomy. Students must complete classroom instruction and 50 venipunctures before they can take the board exam. Upon successfully completing this course, students will be eligible to take the national board certification exam on-site through the National Healthcareer Association (NHA). This course also includes Basic Life Support (BLS) Certification through the American Heart Association.  

Requirements for the course include a valid copy of a current I.D., proof of high school diploma, GED or official transcript. 

 The fee is $995 plus the $125 National Board Certification due Nov. 17 and a $50 material fee due at the first class meeting. A minimum payment of $497.50 must be included with registration and does not include the material fee or board fee. The remaining balance must be paid through checkout.nsula.edu by Nov. 3 for those taking the class in Cenla and Nov. 17 for those taking the class in Natchitoches. An electronic book is available at no cost and will be posted in the online class. 

For more information or to register for classes, go to checkout.nsula.edu or call (800) 376-2422 or (318) 357-6355. Stay up to date with course offerings by following NSULA Continuing Education on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/NSULA.ContinuingEducation.