A Team Effort: Snow Delay Blood Drive
Every 2 seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood. This constant need for blood can only be met by generous donors, and when blood is donated, it could save the life of a cancer patient or someone needing open-heart surgery. Remember, it’s the blood on the shelves that hospitals turn to in emergency situations.
Typically, hospitals have four days’ worth of blood supply on hand, but currently, on average, there are less than two days worth of supply. This is due to the pandemic, and it’s a national issue. Vitalant reports it as being the worst blood shortage in more than a decade.
This blood remains in the Greater Pittsburgh region and is supplied to hospitals such as UPMC Jameson, Butler Memorial Hospital, Sharon Regional Medical Center, and Grove City Medical Center (just to name a few).
This is a portion of something I shared with my students yesterday: Today, you are participating in a life-saving experience for someone . . . somewhere . . . because of something that happened to them to need these blood products. It could be a complete stranger, a loved one, or even themselves! But here’s the good news: For every pint that is donated, three people’s lives could be saved!
The HA students work very hard to prepare for these drives. They learn the theory behind how to take vitals and study for post-donor reaction. They recruit donors and sign them up. They advertise for the blood drive and create a schedule for every student, staff, and visitor on the roster. It is all truly student-led. Hosting this blood drive allows our Health Assistant students to be able to obtain clinical experience with registration, communication skills, filing, observing for post donor reaction, and obtaining post-donation vital signs.
The Health Assistant shop would like to thank all who supported this drive, who donated, and who positively influenced and encouraged someone who considered donating. It was another wonderful blood drive, and LCCTC could never do this without all of you!
Special THANK YOUs must be given to:
Miss Price and the RT students who provide the pizza sprinkled with a heavy dose of hospitality: All day long, anyone within earshot of an RT student delivering fresh, delicious pizza was, "Is there anything else that you need?"
Mrs. Pasterik for the yearbook photos: Many students do not have an ID so they can donate. She lets us borrow Clark's Studio proof photos to allow for the ID of any student who took a photo this year. Without that, many students would be turned away for not having a valid ID.
Mr. George Dudich and Mr. John Hiler, who worked like a well-oiled machine today, making sure all equipment such as chairs/tables/garbage etc is taken care of. Along with George and John, our afternoon shift custodial staff who brought the materials to the gym last night, deserve a huge shout-out!
Our office staff, who, whenever we need anything — more pens, to look up where a student is, or to do any other odd, miscellaneous task, was always willing to do so on these hectic days.
Vitalant made reference as to how welcomed they feel upon their arrival and that “this does not happen every place we go.” The comment I received from the setup person was, "Wow, you guys really have a nice thing going here. This is my first time here and it was impressive.”
To all of our staff members. Without their support to permit students to come to the gym and donate, we could never ever be as successful as we are. I know today was the last day of the marking period, and some students did have assignments to get done, but they found a way to make it work. Thank you all for being so adaptable and willing to support the blood drive.
To Mrs. Cook, Mrs. Sipe and Mrs. Caiazza, our staff members who were able and willing to donate today! Thank you!
And of course, our fearless LCCTC students, who always rise to the occasion of blood drive greater than any school I know!
Even though there was a two-hour delay, we managed to maintain the same number of donors that we would have if we had a regular day. It was certainly a team effort, and we have so many reasons to celebrate this success!
