donor education : role in donor recriutment and donor retention

DONOR EDUCATION :

ROLE IN DONOR RECRUITMENT AND DONOR RETENTION

Dr Rashmi Sood

Consultant Transfusion Medicine

Artemis Health Institute

Gurgaon,India.

What is required Self-Sufficiency

and

safety

in blood and blood components

and

security

in their supply is essential

to strengthen the health system.

Banks

Sufficient CollectionAnalysis say, if 1% to 3% of a country's

population donate blood, it would be

sufficient for the country's needs.

But in more than 73 countries, donation rates

are less than 1% of the population

WHO goal All countries to obtain all blood supplies from voluntary

unpaid donors by 2020.

So continuous efforts are needed for devising successful

recruitment and retention strategies.

Access to safe bloodAbout 80% of the global population who lives in

developing countries , has access to only 40% of

the global supply of safe blood.

Whereas 20% of the global population living in

developed countries has access to 60% of the

global supply of safe blood.

Access to safe blood

Objective of the study

To recruit and retain more blood donors by implementing an effective system of

educating blood donors so as to have a safe and continuous

blood supply.

Human Mind Is Like a Parachute

It needs to open up !

Talk ,Talk and Talk

Talk ,Talk and Talk to blood donors and see how they

interact!

Donor managementIs a great art,

It is an art of communicating with people who come

to a blood centre of their own free will, to offer their

blood for intended supportive haemotherapy.

Attitude Our common attitude is usually driven by need, like catching fish.

Attitude And not so much by establishing a

sustainable

relationship !

AttitudeA relationship based on

motivation,

mutual understanding ,

respect and courtesy,

proper information and education,

on what blood donation really is all about .

Materials & Methods:

Is an ongoing study.

Conducted in a state of art blood bank of an NABH accredited

superspeciality group of Hospitals heading for JCI

accreditation.

3506 blood donors/apheresis donors aged between 18 to 65

years were studied.

Pre-donation and post-donation donor counscelling was done

to analyze these donors and to raise their level of awareness.

Information Information was given about:

A) The process of blood donation including adverse donor reactions and

management.

B) Preparation and storage of blood components and apheresis products.

C) The utilization of donated blood and prepared blood components.

Information

D) The barriers and myths refraining the blood donors from blood donation.

E) The benefits of blood donation to the blood donors including information

of their health status.

F) Transfusion-Transmitted infections and their prevention.

G)Donors were enquired about the blood donation experience following the

donation.

Information H) Greetings were sent to all donors on their

respective birthday’s.

I) An appeal for repeat blood donation was made after

3 months of their previous donation by sending SMS

to their mobile numbers.

Results: Of the 3506 donors screened, 3366(96.01%) were males

and 140(3.99%) were females.

Less than 1 in 25 donations were given by female donors.

Of the total,32.68% (1146)donations came from

voluntary (alturistic)blood donors and 67.31%( 2360)

from replacement(friends ,relatives) blood donors.

Results Less than 37.07%(1300) of the population under study was

aware about the appropriate age for blood donation and

difference between voluntary donation and replacement

donation and whole blood and apheresis donation.

Among the donors, 3310 donated whole blood and 196 gave

apheresis donation.

Results Overall,

38.13%(1337) of donors came from the age group 18–28

years ,

52.59%(1844) from the 29–38 years age group,

7.24%(254) from 39-48 years age group ,

2.02%(71) from those between 49-58 years of age.

Results Literacy profile of the donors showed

0.25%(9) were educated less than 10th ,

14.03%(492)upto class tenth,

32.80%(1150) upto twelveth,

42.21%(1480) were graduates and

10.69%(375) were post-graduates.

Results 23.07% (809) were from village and 76.92% (2697) from city.

Out of the donors, 1833(52.28%) had some idea of the use of blood and

blood components and 1673(47.71%) had no idea.

Benefits of blood donation were known to 12.23% (429) donors while

87.76%(3077) donors had no idea of any benefit being related to blood

donation. All donors showed their willingness to know the benefits.

Women and young people had the least level of knowledge.

ResultsMain reasons for motivation for voluntary blood

donation was

for helping friends and relatives in 65.60%(2300) of

the donors, and

out of Altruism, doing good to others,for

34.39%(1206) of the donors.

ComplianceOf these motivated donors, 97% of those

called again

turned up for voluntary donation ,only reason

for non

compliance being some personnal

engagement.

Conclusion

Donor education promotes positive attitude towards

Voluntary Blood Donation.

Continued donor motivation with donor education

could help in the conversion of the mindset of the

community towards regular Voluntary Non-

renumerated blood donation.

ConclusionThis can help in creating a difference in the level of

access to safe blood.

This would also help in diversification of the donor

base.

Thanks.