Assessment of the knowledge about blood donation among medical students: Before and after implementing a designed teaching session about blood donation.

• ROSHAN MOHAN,*  
• Yashodhara Rajesh Gotekar

Abstract

Introduction - Human blood is most important body fluid in saving lives .The focus was on encouraging voluntary blood donation. That’s why stress should be given on voluntary, non - remunerated blood donation. Aims and objectives To determine the knowledge and to educate regarding voluntary blood donation to medical undergraduate students. Materials and methods This was a cross-sectional study during which baseline knowledge about blood donation was assessed and education about blood donation was provided for the participants and the knowledge about blood donation was reassessed. Results A total of five hundred undergraduate medical students enrolled , out of which 270 (54%) were male and 230 (46%) female. The overall knowledge of voluntary blood donation increased from 70% to 99% after educational intervention. Conclusion Undergraduate medical students had good baseline knowledge about blood donation and this further improved after blood donation educational intervention. That’s why it is important to educate potential blood donors for maintaining pool of voluntary blood donors.

Keywords

Medical students, Voluntary , Non remunerated blood donation.