ABSTRACT

Aim:

Safe transfusion is one of the important steps in blood transfusion. This survey study evaluates the level of education and awareness of our nurses about safe blood transfusion.

Method:

192 nurses working in our hospital were surveyed.

Results:

Only 16% of the participants were 40 years old or older, 18% worked for more than 20 years, 20% were high school graduates, and 25% of them never received training on blood transfusion (BT). All participants have been acquired awareness on cross match and record control. However, 20% were hesitant about the necessity of patient consent. It was observed that there was information confusion about premedication, and 25% were misinformed about blood transfusion procedures. For BTrelated reactions, 67% and 40% could exactly identify the symptoms and the findings, respectively. Of the participants, 15% were misinformed about the necessity of emergency kit and 50% were aware of what to be performed in case of a BT reaction.

Discussion:

Since increasing the safety in BT process is highly related to the level of knowledge and awareness of the transfusion nurses, it is important to establish inservice training programs and safety control systems.