Quality management and blood safety training for blood facilities in Western Zone, Tanzania 2022 March
A quality management system documents the policies, processes, and procedures necessary for an organization to create and deliver its products to customers and therefore increases customer satisfaction through high product quality.
The overall goal of this training was to improve the quality of blood safety activities from the point of blood collection to blood utilization. It involved staff from blood transfusion services, hospitals and health centers.
According to the African Society for Blood Transfusion (AfSBT), quality management system is addressed under section A, and blood safety process is covered under section B.
Training was aimed towards medical personnel (nurses, doctors and laboratory technologists) from selected facilities from Tabora, Kigoma and Katavi regions on good practices of quality on blood safety. Topics covered were blood safety indicators, requirements for blood donor recruitment, blood collection requirement, principles of pre- and post-donation counseling, management of blood donor adverse reactions, and principles of quality management on blood safety and documentation.
Specific objectives
- To enable facilities to understand the whole chain from blood collection to blood utilization and post-donation counseling.
- To enable facilities on management of donor adverse reaction.
- To enable facilities on understanding quality management system and awareness of SOPs, guidelines and forms.
Workshop methodology
Teaching methodology included lecture presentations and group discussions.
Workshop implementation
Training was conducted at western zone conference hall at NBTS-Tabora from 08:00-17:00 for two days on the 28th and 29th March 2022. All regions were represented with the attendance of nursing and medical laboratory staff from selected facilities.
Outputs/Results
The following action items were agreed with all participants to achieve the targets:
- Dissemination of training materials, SOPs, forms and guidelines to their fellow co-workers at the hospital and health facilities.
- To make sure each blood collection team has a nurse/doctor as a counselor.
- To make sure donors get their PDC results.
- Documentation of donor and patient adverse reactions.
Also, a WhatsApp group which included all participants was created for easy communication, sharing experience and challenges.
Evaluation of the workshop
At the end of sessions, participants had the chance to evaluate the workshop as required by the funding institution, International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT). Participants assessed the workshop on training objectives, relevance of workshop, training content, program schedule, condition of facility and workshop facilitators and method used for facilitation.
Each category was evaluated by the participants and rated highly as indicated below:
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Please respond to each statement by placing an “X” to indicate your agreement or disagreement with the statement. |
StronglyAgree |
Agree |
Neutral |
Disagree |
Strongly Disagree |
Not Applicable |
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1. The workshop increased my understanding of quality Management on blood safety. |
27 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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2. The content was relevant to my professional needs. |
24 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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3. The workshop objectives were clearly stated. |
26 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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4. The workshop objectives were achieved. |
28 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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5. The workshop content was interesting. |
27 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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6. The level of interactivity was appropriate for the workshop. |
23 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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7. The supporting resource materials supplied (or referred) are relevant and useful to me. |
24 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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8. The duration of the session/activity was right for me. |
20 |
8 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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9. The place of the session/activity was right for me. |
23 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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10. The facilitator was knowledgeable. |
28 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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11. The facilitator was able to communicate thoughts and ideas. |
26 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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12. Overall rate of workshop was excellent |
28 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Acknowledgements
Western zone Blood Transfusion Centre (WZBTC) would like to give special thanks to ISBT and its academy for their contribution in continuing to support blood safety activities in Tanzania through these workshops.
We would like to thank the Ministry of Health-Tanzania, National Blood Transfusion Services (Headquarters Office), facilitators and participants for making this possible.
Other facilitators
1. Zaituni Aballah (Ag.Zonal Manager- WZBTC)
2. Dr. Juma Kiangi (Donor Counselor)
3. Nyawade Magesa (Head of Donation)
4. Joseph Lugaha (Head of Laboratory)
5. Jimmy Lawi (Blood Donor Recruiter)
Mariam Monah
