Blood Drive

purplewaves45 · Nov 13, 2018

Just hosted mine on Friday. I am at a private boarding high school. We get a mix of students 16 and older, faculty and community members. I don't how the drive fell on health services to plan, but that is the way it has always been done. It is a lot or work- both prep and the day off. To have a successful drive, you need to be constantly looking on the Red Cross coordinator portal ( which is a awful) and remondering peope about opening, what to do the day before and then thy day off. Also finding volunteers to help, and people to hang out posters.

Day of is a huge ordeal. This year was very frustrating because every single Red Cross staff gave each and my volunteers conflicting info..,

A couple people kept asking to have another drive in the spring .umm, nope. All you

Farawyn · Nov 13, 2018

WE do 3 a year. They take care of everything, including the post blood donation fainting.

Get a sub, so you can go back and forth seamlessly.

Run an attendance list.

recruit some seniors to help- most Blood Centers offer small scholarships.

Amethya · Nov 13, 2018

Elementary and Middle School here, so no. We tried once, but it wasn't going to be successful because of the ages here and the parents didn't like to participate.

beachynurse, ASN, BSN · Nov 14, 2018

We have 2 blood drives a year that I am not responsible for, other than picking up the ones that pass out after the fact. We have various student organizations that sponsor them in the school. I try to be proactive, and will offer the Red Cross staff one of my scales to use. One of the biggest problems I find is that some of the students may "guess" at their weight and guess low. This is one of my major causes of students passing out. By having the scale on hand, the Red Cross can eliminate students that are under the weight minimum. This has been so helpful to both of us!

aprilmoss · Nov 14, 2018

I have no medical role in the blood drive. As others point out, the drive is medically self-sufficient and their requirements (space, power, etc...) are provided by the administration. I only get a few "post donation" visitors on the other hand.