A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Structured Teaching Programme on Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Blood Donation Among Students of Selected Arts Colleges at Rajkot

Abstract

Donating blood is an act that can bring back a person from the jaws of death. In India, about six million units are collected annually against the requirement of eight and half million, for a population of one and half billion. There is an increased demand in supply of blood units in blood banks for everybody’s requirement. So, the investigator felt a need to create awareness among the college students on blood donation.
Blood donation is a divine act. Mother Teresa has eulogized blood donation as “Helping God”. Blood donors donate blood for saving precious human lives. When they 1make this donation, they enjoy supreme bliss. They are Ambassadors of goodwill and universal brotherhood. The most important is that blood donation can save one person to even four lives, because by advances in medicine, the liquid is split into some of its components (plasma, platelets, cryoprecipitate and blood cells), to be applied in different patients according to the needs of each. At the cost of just a pinprick, we can actually help to save four lives. Donated blood can be lifesaving for individuals who have lost large amounts of blood because of serious accidents, civil and military conflicts, widespread tragedies or surgery, as well as for individuals who have become severely anemic or have dangerously low platelet counts because of certain hematological diseases such as sickle cell anemia or treatments such as cancer therapy. Modern science is yet to find an ideal substitute of blood and hence blood transfusion still remains a vital component of patient management. Thus, availability and safety of blood and blood products are two very important issues of concern. Today, the use of whole blood is a well-accepted and commonly employed measure without which many modern surgical procedures could not be carried out. Safe blood is a critical component in improving health care and in preventing the spread of infectious diseases globally. Millions of lives are saved each year through blood transfusions, yet the quality and safety of blood transfusion is still a concern particularly in the developing countries. About five percentage to ten percentage of new HIV infections worldwide are transmitted through unsafe blood transfusions. The reason for this includes blood collection from unsafe donors, poor laboratory procedures and inadequate testing of blood. Blood will be safe if there is a nationally coordinated blood transfusion service, collection of blood only from voluntary non-remunerated donors, testing of blood for transfusion transmissible infection and by transfusion of the right blood to the right patient through the appropriate clinical use of blood.
According to WHO, 'Safe Blood' is blood that does no harm to the person who receives it. In spite of the extensive promising research, a true substitute for blood and blood components (red blood cells, platelets, blood clotting factors, fresh frozen plasma or white blood cells) will not be available for many years. Therefore, blood donation by human will continue to be the only source for blood and blood components.5 A blood donation truly is a “gift of life” that a healthy individual can give to others in their community who are sick or injured. We have one life let us make our life more meaningful by donating blood. Blood donation is the mother of all donations. It directly gives life to another human being. It is not only saving one individual but also the entire family of that individual.
Turning people into loyal blood donors - a term referring to at least two donations per year, according to the National Health Surveillance Agency is an extremely relevant issue, since increasing indices would raise the absolute number of donations coming from donors who are known to be both healthy and suitable.