Knowledge status of clinical care workers about safe transfusion and its related factors in academic hospitals in Gonabad University of Medical Sciences

Transfusion medicine plays an important role in saving human life and it is essential for care workers involved have competent in the field. The present study aimed to assess the knowledge status of clinical care workers about safe transfusion. In this cross-sectional study, 100 nursing and midwifery staff working in 15 Khordad and 22 Bahman hospitals in Gonabad were selected by using the census method sampling. Data collection was done by using two questionnaires: one eliciting individual characteristics and the other measuring the knowledge level about blood transfusion. Data were analyzed by SPSS11.5 software. p< 0.05 was considered as the statistical significant level. The mean (SD) age of the subjects was 31.42 ± 7.05 years, the elapsed time after the final workshop 7.93 ± 8.93 months, and the used common product was whole blood. The knowledge level of 73 percent of the subjects was evaluated as average. No statistically significant relationship between age, sex, education, work experience, the place of work, participation in the transfusion or transfusion-related workshops, the time elapsed from the last workshop, and count in transfusion rate with knowledge level about transfusion was observed. The knowledge level in the morning shift was significantly higher than other shifts. Results showed that the clinical care staffs have the average knowledge level about transfusion. In the morning shift there was the highest knowledge level about transfusion that confirms the positive impact of transfusion practice and experience on the knowledge level.