title: Pre-Test and Post-Test Applications to Shape the Education of Phlebotomists in A Quality Management Program: An Experience in a Training Hospital.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  After the introduction of modern laboratory instruments and information systems, preanalytic phase is the new field of battle. Errors in preanalytical phase account for approximately half of total errors in clinical laboratory. The objective of this study was to share an experience of an education program that was believed to be successful in decreasing the number of rejected samples received from the Emergency Department (ED).
  
  
  METHODS
  An education program about laboratory procedures, quality requirements in the laboratory, patient and health-care worker safety was planned by the quality team to be performed on 36 people who were responsible for sample collection in the ED. A questionary which included 11 questions about the preanalytic phase was applied to all the attendees before and after training. The number of rejected samples per million was discovered with right proportion account over the number of accepted and rejected samples to laboratory after and before the training period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Most of the attendees were nurses (n: 22/55%), with over 12 years of experience in general and 2-4 years experience in the ED. Knowledge level of the attendees was calculated before training as 58.9% and after training as 91.8%. While the total rate of sample rejection before training was 2.35% (sigma value 3.37-3.50), the rate after training was 1.56% (sigma value 3.62-3.75).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Increasing the knowledge of staff has a direct positive impact on the preanalytic phase. The application of a pre-test was observed to be a feasible tool to shape group specific education programs.
authors.affiliation: Central Laboratories of Antalya Education and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Güzin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Aykal
authors.affiliation: Emergency Department of Antalya Education and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keşapli
authors.affiliation: Clinical Biochemistry, Batman Maternity and Children's Hospital, Batman, Turkey.
authors.forename: Özgür
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: Aydin
authors.affiliation: Quality Management Department of Antalya Education and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Hatice
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Esen
authors.affiliation: Central Laboratories of Antalya Education and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ayşenur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yeğin
authors.affiliation: Emergency Department of Antalya Education and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Faruk
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Güngör
authors.affiliation: Central Laboratories of Antalya Education and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Necat
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yilmaz
keywords: knowledge management; preanalytic error; quality management