Universal donor education and consent: what we know and where we should go.
Each day thousands of blood donors across the country are given educational materials and sign a consent form, thus fulfilling two blood collection accreditation requirements. Very few donors will experience a documented adverse event, although a disproportionate number of these events occur in the youngest donor cohort. The literature reflects this disproportion and suggests mitigation strategies. Studies describe subjective, undocumented donor reactions and decreased donor return rates after a documented or subjective reaction. Additionally, studies have shown donor consent form variability among blood collection facilities and that donor comprehension of the educational materials and consent is limited. There are few standardized donor education materials or consent documents. Current accreditation standards for educational materials are limited to aspects of transfusion-transmitted diseases and for donor consent process and documentation are vague and nonspecific. Recent experiences with young donors and current research compel our community to engage in creating standardized, expanded donor educational materials and standardized donor consent processes and documents.
Department of Pathology, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908-0286, USA. GWMD@virginia.edu
Gay
G
Wehrli
Kathleen
K
Sazama
D001771:Blood Banks / Q000592:standards; D001781:Blood Component Removal / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000592:standards*; D001782:Blood Donors; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000592:standards*; D006266:Health Education / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent / Q000592:standards*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards; D065227:Transfusion Reaction