[Evaluation of midwives transfusion knowledge in Brittany public and private maternities, 2014]

This regional study aims to evaluate the transfusion knowledge of midwives in 22 Brittany maternity hospitals.

A multicentre, descriptive and comparative study used a questionnaire consisting in 16 theoretical questions about transfusion and questions being carried out. The analysis used the rate of correct answers and a pondered coefficient has been assigned to the different questions to evaluate the level of midwife knowledge.

Twenty-two maternity hospitals participated in the study and 238 returned questionnaires could be analysed, a return rate of 36%. The rate of correct answers was between 5 and 98% depending on the questions; for example, the rate of correct answers of the ultimate control's reading varied between 64 and 98% and revealed that 5 to 7% of midwives would validate an incompatible transfusion. The average score was 31/50 with a minimum of 7/50 and a maximum of 44/50. Three statically significant links have been found according to the last year of training specific to blood transfusion, the graduation year and the level of maternity.

This study revealed an insufficient knowledge of the transfusion among midwives and raised prospects, which could lead to an improvement of training courses offered to midwives.