[FLONCNURSE]

Hello,

I have a question for anyone who works in harvesting stem cells for Allo/Auto BMT patients. Is there a national certification or just a test held by ASFA? Also, for pediatric patients how do you calculate their TBV, what do you prime your machine with? whole blood or i unit of diluted PRBC equivalant to the child HCT? I would like to find any nurse working in this area to assist with other question. Please help...

[EricJRN]

There is the Hemapheresis Practitioner [HP(ASCP)] certification offered by the American Society for Clinical Pathology, but I think it's more geared toward plateletpheresis and plasmapheresis than it is toward PBSC's/BMT stuff. Something to consider though...

Can't really answer the other questions - haven't worked in apheresis since becoming an RN almost a year ago, and even then I was just a platelet/plasma/granulocyte guy (almost all donor procedures, very few therapeutic).

[iceyspots]

I donate platelets