Blood
Chapter 1
1.0 Introduction
Blood Donor Recruitment (BDR) is the process of drawing blood from a voluntary Blood Donor (BD) for future blood transfusion, Wikipedia (2006). In Nigeria, blood collection, safety and management is an activity that is carried out by Nigeria Red Cross Society (NRCS) in partnership with Nigeria Blood Transfusion (NBTS). Founded in 1939, NRCS is part of the world wide Red Cross Humanitarian Movement whose mission is to mobilize the power of humanity for improving the lives of the vulnerable in Nigeria, Muller (2001). NRCS fulfills this mission while adhering to the principles of impartiality, neutrality, independence, unity, universality and voluntary service for the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement. It operates throughout Nigeria with 45 branch offices. Besides providing adequate supply of blood for transfusion, NRCS is involved in the first aid services, road safety, tracing, disaster mitigation/preparedness, mobilization for routine immunization, HIV homecare, youth empowerment and Community based HealthCare (CBHC).
NRCS had a manual system using paper cards to recruit BDs, collect/keep blood donor records and disseminate results to BDs who are scattered throughout the country. The paper card system (PCS) used to specifically capture personal data and medical history of the BDs. This information would be used in identifying/locating existing BDs, carrying out pre-donation counseling and taking blood results. Unauthorized persons however, easily accessed the paper system and hence making it impossible to keep secrecy and confidentiality expected of medical records. The security of the medical records was also not inadequate as any person could easily access them. Lukande (2003), states that such a system is time consuming, prone to errors of entry and analysis resulting from the fatigue of the users. The PCS at NRCS had lead to accumulation of physical paper cards due to increasing number of blood donors, a situation that frustrated the
1.0 Introduction
Blood Donor Recruitment (BDR) is the process of drawing blood from a voluntary Blood Donor (BD) for future blood transfusion, Wikipedia (2006). In Nigeria, blood collection, safety and management is an activity that is carried out by Nigeria Red Cross Society (NRCS) in partnership with Nigeria Blood Transfusion (NBTS). Founded in 1939, NRCS is part of the world wide Red Cross Humanitarian Movement whose mission is to mobilize the power of humanity for improving the lives of the vulnerable in Nigeria, Muller (2001). NRCS fulfills this mission while adhering to the principles of impartiality, neutrality, independence, unity, universality and voluntary service for the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement. It operates throughout Nigeria with 45 branch offices. Besides providing adequate supply of blood for transfusion, NRCS is involved in the first aid services, road safety, tracing, disaster mitigation/preparedness, mobilization for routine immunization, HIV homecare, youth empowerment and Community based HealthCare (CBHC).
NRCS had a manual system using paper cards to recruit BDs, collect/keep blood donor records and disseminate results to BDs who are scattered throughout the country. The paper card system (PCS) used to specifically capture personal data and medical history of the BDs. This information would be used in identifying/locating existing BDs, carrying out pre-donation counseling and taking blood results. Unauthorized persons however, easily accessed the paper system and hence making it impossible to keep secrecy and confidentiality expected of medical records. The security of the medical records was also not inadequate as any person could easily access them. Lukande (2003), states that such a system is time consuming, prone to errors of entry and analysis resulting from the fatigue of the users. The PCS at NRCS had lead to accumulation of physical paper cards due to increasing number of blood donors, a situation that frustrated the