An Educational Bundle to Secure Nursing Competency toward Safe Blood Transfusion

Blood is a unique and scarce resource that must be used cautiously to ensure its safety and efficacy.
Blood transfusion is a lifesaving medical intervention, but without basic information about each
step, the importance of each one related to each other, and when safe practices are not followed,
transfusion of blood can create life-threatening risks. Nurses have a dynamic role in blood
transfusion procedures; their skills and knowledge remain essential keys to ensure safe blood
transfusion. Study aim: evaluate the effect of the educational bundle on securing nurses'
competency toward safe blood transfusion. Study Design: a quasi-experimental design. Setting:
blood disorders, emergency, and oncology departments at Zagazig University Hospitals, Al Sharkia
Governorate, Egypt. Subject: all available nurses (50) who are working at the previously mentioned
settings. Tools: A structured interview questionnaire to assess nurses' socio-demographic
characteristics and their knowledge about safe blood transfusion process; and blood transfusion
observational checklist were used to collect data. Results: the highest percentage of participant
nurses their age was 25-30 years and had ≤5 experience years in blood transfusion. There were a
statistically significant difference and improvement of the total nurses' knowledge and their practice
competency toward safe blood transfusion after educational bundle implementation compared to
before it, and there was a positive statistically significant correlation between total nurses'
knowledge and practice regarding safe blood transfusion pre and post-implementation of the
educational bundle as well as between their total pre and post practices. Moreover, the commonest
errors in the blood transfusion process that lead to an adverse reaction as reported by participants'
nurses included blood incompatibility followed by not check vital signs pre, during and post
transfusion. Conclusions: The implementation of the educational bundle had a positive effect on
improving the nurses' knowledge and their practice competency toward safe blood transfusion.
Recommendations: continually perform regular in-service training and follow-up to nurses'
performance and motivation to updating their knowledge and practices.