Blood Transfusion Process: Nursing Responsibilities and Patient Safety

This report delves into the crucial aspects of blood transfusions, highlighting the multifaceted roles and responsibilities of nursing staff within healthcare settings. It outlines the entire blood transfusion process, from donor screening and blood collection to component segregation, storage, and administration. The report emphasizes the importance of meticulous procedures, including the correct identification of patients, appropriate blood component selection, and vigilant monitoring throughout the transfusion process. It underscores the need for nurses to be well-informed about potential adverse reactions and to adhere to stringent safety protocols. Furthermore, the report stresses the significance of effective communication, ethical practices, and the impact of leadership in ensuring the safety and efficacy of blood transfusions, ultimately aiming to improve patient outcomes. The report also covers the blood transfusion services which include factors like safe donors, safe blood and safe transfusion process. The report also includes impact of leadership on the effective management of nursing staff.

Blood Transfusion

What is Blood Transfusion
Blood transfusion is one of the major nursing practice that is
been taken into effective consideration for meeting the
requirement criteria of the person with major health issue or in
requirement of blood. It involves the effective handling of
various operations related to the blood transfusion as any sort
of mistake can lead to the mortality of recipient (Klein and
Anstee, 2014).

TASK 1a and 1b
The blood transfusion process involves the better
handling of the various operations that helps in the
effective handling of the various operations that will
help the firm to meet the requirements of the patients. It
involves the various processes like blood donation,
storage of its various components such as Red Blood
Cells, Plasma, Platelets and its various derivatives,
testing to find the chances of presence of any bacteria,
contamination or pathogen, effective screening of the
person needing the blood and carrying out the blood
transfusion process effectively (Marano and et.al.,
2016).

Steps of Blood transfusion
The effective blood transfusion process
involves the following steps:
 Screening: it involves the effective handling of the blood
donor selection and then conducting the physical
examination like weight, haemoglobin, blood group etc.
to get the basic details of the blood and segregate it
accordingly.
 Blood collection: The taken blood is then further tested
in labs to identify the presence of any antigen or
antibody.
 Segregation: The collected blood is then taken into the
storage where it is further segregated into various
components, which are been further used separated or
used as whole blood.

Cont...
The stored blood has a shelf life which means it is required to be
consumed within that time period. Also, before the transfusion,
the blood or its components are meant to be tested for the
presence of any microbes or pathogen that can be harmful for
the recipient. Thus, it is required to be handled with caution by
the nursing staff off a health care or nursing home (Vohra and
et.al., 2016). The transfusion of blood is needed to be carried out
only in the condition like excessive bleeding, trauma, inadequate
blood production, or destruction of the blood cells due to a
disease or mechanical factor, when there is no other measure to
be taken into the consideration that helps in the better reviving of
the patient or recipient, and can cause its mortality.

Cont....
Other than this, the better handling of the blood
transfusion process by the nursing staff is
more important when the person is either
women and is pregnant, in a vulnerable stage
of 5- 29 years when the person is highly
prone to various accidents or having a
chronic blood disease like thalassemia etc.

Responsibilities and roles of
Nursing staff
 He/she will look after all the effective measures that will
lead to the effective handling of medical needs and
requirements of the patient in case of emergency.
 Inform the patient and his/her family in case of need of
transfusion.
 Noting the indications of the transfusion process in the
patient's note.
 Effectively managing of the whole blood and quantity of
the blood component required according the blood
transfusion request form (Theusinger, Kind and Seifert,
2014).
 Looking after the reason for the effective blood
transfusion process and the suitability of transfusion for
it.

Cont....
 Carrying out the effective diagnosis of the proper reason of
blood transfusion.
 Collection of the blood sample and effectively labelling them
in order to have the easy accessibility.
 Getting the blood from the blood bank for the proper and
immediate usage.
 If the blood is not consumed or utilised, the nursing staff will
look after the effective storage of the blood to avoid its
wastage.
 Cross check the identity of the patient or the recipient and
providing the correct blood sample. This involves the
effective documentation of the various blood components
utilised as well as the patient or the recipient, to whom the
blood is transfused (Newman and et.al., 2014).

Administration of blood
transfusion
The effective administration of the blood
transfusion will involve the following duties
that are been required to be followed by the
nursing staff for the effective handling of
blood transfusion at nursing home.

Cont....
It will help in the effective handling of the various
operations and will involve the following functions:
 Type of blood and the quantity consumed.
 Blood group consumed or used at the nursing home.
 The donation number of the donor and the details of
his/her blood group (Burns and et.al., 2016).
 Time of the transfusion and the number of the unit of
blood utilised in the transfusion process.

Cont....
 Monitoring of the patient or the recipient before, during
and after the transfusion process is been carried out.
 Getting the permission to carry out the blood transfusion
and utilisation of blood from the authority looking after
its management (Carson and et.al., 2015).
 Stopping or discontinuing the blood transfusion process
in case of any sort of medical emergency or
identification of any sort of adverse effect.
 Recording and documenting the details of any sort of
negative impact or reaction of blood transfusion process.

Safeguarding and
quality
They will ethically use the high standard of
equipments and non contaminated blood that
helps in the effective handling of the various
operations and meeting of the various
operational or medical requirements in a very
effective way. The nursing staff of the care
home or hospital will also look after the better
management of the blood transfusion request
form (Trinchero and et.al., 2017).