Know your heroes: Meighen Coutts

Meighen Coutts holding her UHN badge

Name: Meighen Coutts
Title: Specimen Management Technician (Phlebotomist)
Number of years working in health care: One year as of November 2023
I was born and raised in: Toronto/Peterborough

I decided to get into health care because as cliché as this sounds, I decided to get into health care to help people. The pandemic allowed me to do some soul searching and, after working in the hospitality industry for more than 20 years, I felt that a job in health care would satisfy my desire to truly help people. After I started to donate blood I became interested in phlebotomy, and less than a year later I enrolled myself in school to launch my new career journey.

My role here at UHN is a phlebotomist who collects blood samples from patients for testing, but some patients call me a vampire!

The thing I love the most about my job is… there are actually 2 things: I’m constantly learning something new (eg. rare tests and their functions, procedural updates, our electronic patient record system called EPIC). And the second: my colleagues! I am so lucky to work with such supportive, hard-working, and lovely people who put up with me and my big personality.

The most incredible thing I’ve seen at work is that I see a lot patients before a procedure or operation, but I almost never get to follow up with them. So, if we do cross paths again it’s really incredible to see their progress.

I sometimes worry about how we see a lot of patients on a daily basis, but some often enough that I can get to know them a little bit. It can be quite painful to see their condition worsen. Keeping that balance between the professional and personal without losing compassion or empathy is something that I do worry about – but I am still new and understand that it is part of the learning process.

I found joy recently from making people laugh! Apparently working in health care can be really tough (who knew?), so if there’s a moment that I can make someone having a rough day laugh or smile, it’s a “winner winner chicken dinner” kind of day.

My ideal day off is sleeping in and hanging out on my couch in my pajamas with a coffee in the morning, or a glass of wine in the evening.


Did you know you can recognize a UHN staff member through our Honour Your Hero program? Express gratitude for the care you or a loved one received and share a personal message of thanks with the people who supported you throughout your care journey. Your gift will supported research, education and the enhancement of patient care right here at UHN.

This site uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. By continuing on our site, you accept use of cookies. For more information, please visit our privacy policy.

CLOSE

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram YouTube