Effect of education on the knowledge of health care workers about blood products, blood administration, and transfusion complications

Blood transfusion is an important treatment procedure. Transfusion processes and procedures could be effective only if those involved have the adequate level of awareness about transfusion medicine. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of education on the knowledge of health care workers about blood products, blood administration, and complications of transfusion. This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 133 hospital staff. The data were collected by the valid and reliable questionnaire. Two training workshops on the blood collection, storage, and possible side effects of blood transfusion acted as the intervention. The data were analyzed by SPSS18 software, paired t-test, and descriptive statistics. The knowledge of health care workers in the field of blood transfusion was inappropriate; 36.1% of the participants were poor and 63.9% average. The results showed the intervention has a significant effect on the staff knowledge (the knowledge scores before and after the intervention were 10.65 and 13.59, respectively) which was statistically significant (p=0.0001). The results show that the improvement of education in the area of transfusion ​​medicine would improve the awareness of hospital staff. Therefore, periodical educational programs and publication of educational pamphlets are highly recommended for the hospital staff involved in blood transfusion.