The Experience of Organizing Blood Donation Camp through Student Initiative

A blood donation camp was organized in the institute which was a student initiative and a street play on blood donation awareness was carried out at different parts of the institute. For this reason, the study aimed at assessing the knowledge, attitude, and practises among the voluntary donors was carried out to bring out further awareness programs.

The study is a Cross-sectional analysis to know about the knowledge, attitude, and practises among the donors as well as collect information regarding the rare blood groups. The idea to conduct a blood donation camp at a tertiary care hospital in Amritsar was initiated by the students of the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th professional year and was implemented on February 8, 2018. On this day, two awareness street plays were carried out, first at the outpatient department area and then near the college entrance to spread the message about the benefits and necessity of blood donation. The activity of blood donation was executed by a group of 15 team members and the staff posted in the blood bank of the institute. Each donor was taken care of by looking after any postdonation weakness or nausea plus were also provided with refreshments. At the end, feedback forms were handed over and 50 such filled forms were collected.

Out of the 50 donors, there were 21 male (42%) and 29 females (58%), with a mean age of 21.45 ± 1.35 years. It was recognized that, among 50 donors, 52% of the donors have not donated in the last 2 years while 58% of the donors would voluntarily like to donate blood again. It was seen that 52% of the donors had fear of needles acting as a hindrance for the blood donation.

My experience during the whole journey of the initiative was quite enlightening. Looking at the enthusiasm of the donors and the organizing team, it also encouraged the patients' relatives and professors to come forward for the donation. The success of the event has further encouraged me to carry out such more awareness projects in the future.