title: A primer for nurses who administer blood products.
abstract: Types of blood products commonly transfused by medical-surgical nurses include packed red blood cells, fresh frozen plasma, and platelets. This review of ABO and Rh blood types and leukocyte-reduced blood products serves as a basis for understanding the nursing procedures and assessments that are a vital part of a safe and successful transfusion. The concept of the seroconversion window is described and related to the latest donor blood testing procedures such as nucleic acid amplification, which has markedly reduced the time between the initial contracting of viral illnesses such as HIV and hepatitis C and the point at which they may be detected in donor blood.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Penn State University, Hershey, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Priscilla
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Simmons
mesh_terms: D000017:ABO Blood-Group System; D001788:Blood Grouping and Crossmatching / Q000379:methods; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000451:nursing*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D017053:Infection Control / Q000379:methods; D007258:Informed Consent; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D018579:Patient Selection; D012204:Rh-Hr Blood-Group System; D017751:Safety Management / Q000379:methods; D065227:Transfusion Reaction
chemical_list: D000017:ABO Blood-Group System; D012204:Rh-Hr Blood-Group System