Safe Blood Transfusion Practices among Nurses in a Major Referral Center in Ghana

Abstract

Errors in transfusion of blood and blood products can lead to preventable morbidity and mortality. Nurses constitute a significant aspect of the transfusion process as they are the last in the chain of getting blood directly to the patient. They must, therefore, be conversant with the current standard of national and international guidelines on blood transfusion and appropriate management of adverse transfusion events. This study assesses the knowledge and practices of blood transfusion safety among nurses at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital. A descriptive cross-sectional design was employed, and structured questionnaire (Routine Blood Transfusion Knowledge Questionnaire) was used to collect data from 279 nurses from seven clinical directorates of the hospital. The data were processed with Stata version 14.0. Variables were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and relationships were drawn using inferential statistics. Over 90% of the respondents had a minimum of a diploma in nursing or midwifery, 63% had performed blood transfusion at least 5 times, and 46% had never received any training on blood transfusion. The mean score obtained in all four categories of blood transfusion knowledge assessed was 29, with 54% of the respondents scoring below the mean. The highest overall score on knowledge was 53%. This indicates that nurses had poor knowledge regarding safe blood transfusion practices as stipulated in the clinical guidelines for blood transfusion by Ghana’s National Blood Service. There was no statistically significant relationship between training/experience and knowledge of safe blood transfusion practices. Regular and continuous update training and audit are needed to safeguard patient safety during blood transfusion.

Assessing Training Needs of Health Personnel on the Process of Selecting Blood Donors and Transfusion in the West Region of Cameroon

“…Studies carried out on other aspects of blood transfusion have shown results more or less similar to ours: Bediako et al in 2021 found an average level of knowledge of 29% among staff of health in Ghana. 7 Mayaki et al found a level of knowledge greater than 70% among 3.3% of health workers, while Obi et al found a rate of 98% in Nigeria. 3,30 The context of our study can explain these differences: knowledge was evaluated on a 100% correct response rate and we were interested in only one aspect of blood transfusion which is the selection of blood donors.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5] Blood transfusion has helped save many lives, but it is an activity that can constitute many risks, particularly infectious, immunological and hemodynamic. [6][7][8][9][10] This procedure sometimes results in adverse events in the receivers, which can range from minor to serious. Studies have been conducted in different settings to assess the prevalence of adverse events after blood transfusion.…”

Electronic transfusion consent and blood delivering pattern improve the management of blood bank in China

“…Different countries have different policies and realities [ 18 – 22 ]. The lack of blood transfusion consent forms or lack of documentation which only had verbal blood transfusion consent forms remained to be a problem in some areas [ 19 , 20 ]. This problem could be solved by using a pre-prepared paper blood transfusion consent form in a standard format and checking that the blood transfusion consent was completed before the blood transfusion [ 21 , 22 ].…”

An Approach to Blood and Blood Product Transfusion/Reactions

“…In another study, 39% of the participants gave correct answers about the reactions, and it was found that those with more experience in the profession knew better about the reactions [10]. In another survey study, in which 279 nurses who had experience working in a transfusion unit for 5 years participated, the authors reported that more than half (58%) of the participants had insufficient knowledge about transfusion-related complications [17]. Similarly, in our study, the rate of knowing all the symptoms correctly was 31.9% and 37.6% of the signs.…”