Administering Blood Transfusions In The Medical Environment

In the medical environment, blood transfusions are a common method of providing patients with the necessary fluid components to maintain vital bodily functions. Blood can be harvested and donated from other individuals, or can be taken from the patient and preserved for autologous use. Whichever the case, this procedure has saved countless lives on end and remains a crucial part of nursing. It is imperative that such a useful procedure be taken seriously in the workplace since there remains a fine line between proper blood administrative practice and malpractice; the latter has the potential to result in fatal consequences. Administering blood is not a procedure that can be done with one’s hands tied behind their back. It requires proper identification …show more content…
Since each human being on the planet carries either an A, B, AB, or O blood type positive or negative, they can only be matched to certain blood types for there not to be a harmful reaction. The nurse needs to make sure that he or she administers the correctly matched blood to the correct patient to avoid any adverse reactions. The American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) holds a credible standard for advancing transfusion and cellular therapies worldwide (http://www.aabb.org/Pages/default.aspx). The September 2012 standard ‘Primer of Blood Administration’ specifies the correct techniques to administering blood safely to patients who are in need as well as any background anatomical information of blood itself. Chapter 5 page 2 of the AABB’s Primer of Blood Administration tells us the following. After the physician’s orders have been reviewed and patient consent has been obtained, before even attempting to administer blood, a nurse’s mind should be thinking about why the blood is being given, if the patient’s cultural beliefs have been faced, what is in the product itself, how it is handled and stored, whether the