Difference between Generalist and Specialist

Inside my right elbow is a mottled green and purple mess of a giant bruise. The green is concentrated right in the crook of my arm where the needle went in, and it radiates down my forearm in blotches of purple. This is bruising left over from last week’s blood draw in the emergency department of a large hospital.

Contrast this with my left arm, where I have but a red pinprick to show for the blood draw done at the local pathology centre. If I hadn’t seen the needle go in, I wouldn’t even know where the wound is.

Hospital emergency departments deal with a plethora of life threatening situations. The nurses there simply don’t have time or capacity to prioritise mitigating superficial bruising to your arm by a blood draw. In contrast, phlebotomists specialise in drawing blood. One look at your arm and they know precisely which needle to use and to pair with what tubing to mitigate trauma.

That’s the difference between a generalist and a specialist. It’s the difference between a scalpel and a butter knife.

Wen