Bedside Blood Transfusion – What Nurses Know and Perform: A Cross-Sectional Study from A Tertiary-Level Cancer Hospital in Rural Kerala

Abstract

Objective: Nursing professionals are expected to have updated knowledge of clinical blood transfusion guidelines while catering to cancer patients requiring bedside transfusions. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge and current practice of nurses at a tertiary-level cancer hospital in rural Kerala using a pretested self-administered structured 20-item questionnaire, and results were analyzed. Results: Among 246 nurses who participated, a response rate of 93.08% ( n = 229) was obtained. Mean scores of 4.64 ± 1.20 out of eight for knowledge-based questions (58.00%) and 6.16 ± 1.49 out of 12 for practical aspects (51.33%) were obtained among respondents. Whereas overall scores were fair (84.28% and 65.94% nurses scoring ≥50% in knowledge-based and practice-based questions, respectively), we noticed poor knowledge-level scores for the key aspects such as time taken for cross-matching, cross-match test taking least time, storage temperature, and mandatory transfusion-transmitted infection tests before initiating transfusion. Poor scores were also noted for key clinical practices relating to warming of blood products, posttransfusion patient monitoring, rate of nonemergency blood transfusions, administration of premedications, and disposal of blood bags among the respondents. Data also revealed that there was a lack of adherence to a uniform cannula size for routine blood transfusion among nurses. Work experience or qualification had no significant relation to the nurses' scores for knowledge or practice-based questions. Conclusions: Overall, a fair amount of theoretical and practical knowledge about bedside transfusion practices were observed among nurses with some inconsistencies not related to qualification or work experience. This illuminates inherent lacunae in the existing training system and merits urgent redressal.

Assessing Malaysian Nurses' Knowledge of Blood Transfusion Procedures and Identifying Knowledge Gaps: A cross-sectional study

“…The study emphasized on the knowledge of ABO and RhD compatibility, and it was observed that more than half of the participants who answered incorrectly lacked this knowledge. However, our results were not as favorable as those reported by Jogi et al (2021), who found a higher percentage of nurses (62.01%) were aware of universal recipient blood groups for ABO and RhD compatibility.…”

“…These results contradict with previous studies by Haza Azdiana et al (2016), which highlighted the influence of training courses, policy availability, and age on knowledge levels. Consistent with Jogi et al (2021), the study reveals that longer work experience is linked to better knowledge. Surprisingly, the level of education does not significantly impact knowledge, contradicting Aneke et al (2017).…”

Blood Transfusion Procedure: Assessment of Serbian Intensive Care Nurses’ Knowledge

“…More than half of the nurses in this study had a moderate level of knowledge about blood transfusion. Earlier studies also showed that nurses' knowledge of this procedure was low or moderate [12,13,17,18,20,[22][23][24][25][26]. Since transfusion of blood and blood products is a multistage procedure, our studies and those mentioned above aim to be used to identify risky parts of the transfusion process and at-risk populations of blood recipients to ensure safe blood administration in intensive care units.…”

“…The researchers designed the questionnaire on nurses' knowledge of the blood transfusion procedure based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Clinical Transfusion Procedure [15], National Guidelines for Clinical Use of Blood [16], and earlier study [17][18][19][20]. Before use, the questionnaire was reviewed by a panel of experts consisting of three nurses with academic education, more than ten years of work experience in the ICU, two doctors, one specialist in anaesthesia and intensive care, and one specialist in transfusionology.…”

“…According to their assessment, the content of the questionnaire was appropriate. The questionnaire consisted of 29 items divided into three domains about nurses' knowledge related to pretransfusion steps (items 1-9) at the beginning of the application of transfusion (items 10-17), and application of transfusion, transfusion reactions (18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29). Nine items (2, 5, 6, 8, 14, 16, 19, 25, and 26) had a true-false answer option, while others were multiple-choice options.…”