LaMaria: Pre-donation counseling

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

ONE of the objectives of donor information and counseling is to maintain the safety of the blood supply and the quality of the blood products. By implementation, this will enable self-deferral by persons with high risk behavior or have traveled to high risk areas. This will identify medications being taken or have taken by the blood donor which may affect the quality of the blood product.

Other objectives include to protect the health of the donor and to fulfill an ethical requirement.

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Pre-donation information, whether written or oral or both, is given to blood donors before donation to allow for informed consent and self-exclusion. This is a routine step in donor selection in every blood donation.

The pre-donation information includes the donor’s rights and responsibilities, blood donation process, potential donation-related complications, tests performed on donated blood, procedure in the event of a positive test result, donor confidentiality.

It will also include the importance of regular donations, donation intervals, TTIs and hoe they can be avoided, high risk behavior, window period of infection – that an asymptomatic infected person can transmit the infection to the patient who received his blood donation, importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, means of self-deferral – voluntary self-exclusion or confidential unit exclusion (CUE) – and alternate testing sites for those AT RISK or for those who want to be tested.

Pre-donation counseling enables the donor to assess his/her own level of risk and suitability as a donor. It also includes educating the donor on maintaining a healthy lifestyle and prevention of transfusion transmissible infections.

In the pre-donation counseling, the donor is re-directed to testing centers if he/she admits having high risk behavior or having been exposed to high risk persons.

POST-DONATION INSTRUCTIONS

Post-donation instructions like post-donation counseling and information is part of donor care and it includes no smoking for more than an hour, at least, drinking more than the usual amount of fluids, avoid lifting heavy weights or strenuous activities for 24 hours, leaving the band-aid on for a minimum of four hours, applying pressure for two to five minutes on the venepuncture and lying down with legs elevated, if the donor feels dizzy or lightheadedness.

The donor is also encouraged to become a regular donor, to avoid high risk activities associated with transfusion transmissible infections and thus, contribute to blood safety.

DIRECTED DONATIONS

When a person seeks to receive blood from a named donor or a donor wishes to donate blood to be transfused to a named recipient, the practice is termed a “DIRECT DONATION”. The request usually occurs within family relationships, in particular parents to children. There is no evidence that directed donations lead to improve patient care nor that they reduce the risk of acquiring Transfusion Transmissible Infections. There is a rare possibility of graft versus host disease if the donor is a close relative and the recipient is immunocompromised – e.g. an infant, a cancer patient, or a transplant patient. In this case, an irradiated blood product is indicated

As a general principle, collection of directed donations is discouraged. However, if a directed donation is collected, the procedures for collecting, testing, storing, handling, and transfusing the unit shall follow the procedures recommended for allogenic blood donations except as specified.

Inter-act with your Philippine Red Cross Baguio City Chapter. You will find us in the addresses below.

E-mail address is jlamaria@yahoo.com or you may inquire at the Philippine Red Cross – Baguio City Chapter office located at Harrison Rd, Baguio City with telephone number (074)424-7953.

BE A PHILIPPINE RED CROSS VOLUNTEER, BE A BLOOD DONOR…