Hemovigilance nursing and contribution to transfusion safety

SUMMARY INTRODUCTION: Hemovigilance is a thorough follow-up procedure for all transfusion steps, from the acquisition of blood and its products to the follow-up of end-recipients. The main goal of hemovigilance is to increase the safety of transfusion. The aim of this study was to investigate the level of knowledge about the transfusion safety of the health personnel of Sakarya Training and Research Hospital, the post-training evaluation and the contribution of hemovigilance nursing to the safety of transfusion. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was carried out with 432 health personnel who were working at Sakarya Training and Research Hospital between January and July 2018 and accepted to participate in the study. A questionnaire consisting of 20 questions was applied to participants before and after education and transfusion safety education. The data were evaluated by using SPSS 20.0 statistical package program. RESULTS: Of the study group, 329 (76.2%) were female and 103 (23.8%) were male. The mean age was 29.1 ± 8.7 years. 48 (11.1%) were doctors, 256 (59.3%) were nurses and 128 (29.6%) were other health personnel. The median of the working year was 5.5 years (1-43 years) and the median of the study was 2.0 (1-42 years). The mean score of the study group ranged from 1 to 19, and the mean score was 9.7 ± 4.2. There was no significant difference in gender and knowledge scores. The mean score of the post-test re-test group was 13.3 ± 5.2 and it was significantly higher than the pre-training level (p <0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The effect of education is clearly seen in the studies and it cannot be denied that the awareness of related health personnel should be increased in order to ensure the safety of transfusion and decrease the reactions. In addition, it will be useful to determine the processes in which health care workers are experiencing hemovigilance by determining the disruption of these processes. Key Words: Hemovigilance Nursing, Blood Transfusion, Transfusion reaction, Transfusion Education, Transfusion Knowledge Level