Blood Transfusion Procedure: Assessment of Serbian Intensive Care Nurses' Knowledge

Many patients require administering one or more blood components during hospitalisation in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Therefore, nurses' knowledge of who is responsible for immediately administering blood transfusions, monitoring patients, and identifying and managing transfusion reactions is crucial. This cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study aimed to assess the knowledge of ICU nurses in tertiary healthcare institutions about blood transfusion procedures. The questionnaire about the transfusion procedure was designed and reviewed by experts. The questionnaire consisted of 29 items divided into three domains. The scores on the knowledge test ranged from 10 to 27. Generally, 57.7% of nurses had moderate, 23.4% low, and 18.9% high levels of knowledge about the transfusion procedure. Most nurses answered correctly about refreezing fresh frozen plasma, verifying the transfusion product, and identifying the patient. Of the nurses, 91.0% would recognise mild allergic reactions, and 98.2% knew about the supervision of sedated patients. Nurses showed poor knowledge of the length of usage of the same transfusion system for red blood cells, labelling, and transfusion administration in febrile patients. Nurses with higher education and longer working experience had significantly better outcomes (p = 0.000) on the knowledge test. Continuous education of ICU nurses on safe transfusion usage is recommended.