diff --git a/app/src/adapters/db/clients/postgres_client.py b/app/src/adapters/db/clients/postgres_client.py
index c70ceef..332a537 100644
--- a/app/src/adapters/db/clients/postgres_client.py
+++ b/app/src/adapters/db/clients/postgres_client.py
@@ -74,6 +74,11 @@ def check_db_connection(self) -> None:
             # if check_migrations_current:
             #     have_all_migrations_run(engine)
 
+    def get_raw_connection(self) -> sqlalchemy.PoolProxiedConnection:
+        # For low-level operations not supported by SQLAlchemy.
+        # Unless you specifically need this, you should use get_connection().
+        return self._engine.raw_connection()
+
 
 def get_connection_parameters(db_config: PostgresDBConfig) -> dict[str, Any]:
     connect_args: dict[str, Any] = {}
diff --git a/app/src/db/bulk_ops.py b/app/src/db/bulk_ops.py
index 1d7bd2a..fa10005 100644
--- a/app/src/db/bulk_ops.py
+++ b/app/src/db/bulk_ops.py
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 """Bulk database operations for performance.
 
-Provides a bulk_upsert function
+Provides a bulk_upsert function for use with
+Postgres and the psycopg library.
 """
-from typing import Any, Optional, Sequence
+from typing import Any, Sequence
 
 import psycopg
 from psycopg import rows, sql
@@ -18,7 +19,7 @@ def bulk_upsert(
     attributes: Sequence[str],
     objects: Sequence[Any],
     constraint: str,
-    update_condition: Optional[sql.SQL] = None,
+    update_condition: sql.SQL | None = None,
 ) -> None:
     """Bulk insert or update a sequence of objects.
 
@@ -39,9 +40,9 @@ def bulk_upsert(
         update_condition = sql.SQL("")
 
     temp_table = f"temp_{table}"
-    create_temp_table(cur, temp_table=temp_table, src_table=table)
-    bulk_insert(cur, table=temp_table, columns=attributes, objects=objects)
-    write_from_table_to_table(
+    _create_temp_table(cur, temp_table=temp_table, src_table=table)
+    _bulk_insert(cur, table=temp_table, columns=attributes, objects=objects)
+    _write_from_table_to_table(
         cur,
         src_table=temp_table,
         dest_table=table,
@@ -51,7 +52,7 @@ def bulk_upsert(
     )
 
 
-def create_temp_table(cur: psycopg.Cursor, temp_table: str, src_table: str) -> None:
+def _create_temp_table(cur: psycopg.Cursor, temp_table: str, src_table: str) -> None:
     """
     Create table that lives only for the current transaction.
     Use an existing table to determine the table structure.
@@ -72,7 +73,7 @@ def create_temp_table(cur: psycopg.Cursor, temp_table: str, src_table: str) -> N
     )
 
 
-def bulk_insert(
+def _bulk_insert(
     cur: psycopg.Cursor,
     table: str,
     columns: Sequence[str],
@@ -98,13 +99,13 @@ def bulk_insert(
             copy.write_row(values)
 
 
-def write_from_table_to_table(
+def _write_from_table_to_table(
     cur: psycopg.Cursor,
     src_table: str,
     dest_table: str,
     columns: Sequence[str],
     constraint: str,
-    update_condition: Optional[sql.SQL] = None,
+    update_condition: sql.SQL | None = None,
 ) -> None:
     """
     Write data from one table to another.
diff --git a/app/tests/src/db/test_bulk_ops.py b/app/tests/src/db/test_bulk_ops.py
index 57d6826..b6ac40e 100644
--- a/app/tests/src/db/test_bulk_ops.py
+++ b/app/tests/src/db/test_bulk_ops.py
@@ -9,8 +9,23 @@
 from src.db import bulk_ops
 
 
+@dataclass
+class Number:
+    id: str
+    num: int
+
+
+def get_random_number_object() -> Number:
+    return Number(
+        id=str(random.randint(1000000, 9999999)),
+        num=random.randint(1, 10000),
+    )
+
+
 def test_bulk_upsert(db_session: db.Session):
-    conn = db_session.connection().connection
+    db_client = db.PostgresDBClient()
+    conn = db_client.get_raw_connection()
+    # conn = db_session.connection().connection
     # Override mypy, because SQLAlchemy's DBAPICursor type doesn't specify the row_factory attribute, or that it functions as a context manager
     with conn.cursor(row_factory=rows.class_row(Number)) as cur:  # type: ignore
         table = "temp_table"
@@ -56,6 +71,9 @@ def test_bulk_upsert(db_session: db.Session):
         for obj in objects[: int(len(objects) / 2)]:
             obj.num = random.randint(1, 10000)
 
+        # And insert additional objects
+        objects.extend([get_random_number_object() for i in range(50)])
+
         bulk_ops.bulk_upsert(
             cur,
             table,
@@ -65,7 +83,7 @@ def test_bulk_upsert(db_session: db.Session):
         )
         conn.commit()
 
-        # Check that the objects were updated
+        # Check that the existing objects were updated and new objects were inserted
         cur.execute(
             sql.SQL("SELECT id, num FROM {table} ORDER BY id ASC").format(
                 table=sql.Identifier(table)
@@ -74,16 +92,3 @@ def test_bulk_upsert(db_session: db.Session):
         records = cur.fetchall()
         objects.sort(key=operator.attrgetter("id"))
         assert records == objects
-
-
-@dataclass
-class Number:
-    id: str
-    num: int
-
-
-def get_random_number_object() -> Number:
-    return Number(
-        id=str(random.randint(1000000, 9999999)),
-        num=random.randint(1, 10000),
-    )