Do you donate blood?

[pna2388]

Hi, I am a rising 4th year nursing student doing a project for a statistics class and am designing an experiment to see if there is a correlation between being a nurse and donating blood. I would really appreciate any responses to the poll! Also, feel free to leave comments, especially if you are ineligible to donate, I would be interested to know why. Thanks! (I posted this in the poll threads but only got a few responses, so I figured I would try it here)

[perfectbluebuildings, BSN, RN]

I wish I could but I can't, don't weigh enough, did once just after 9/11 lied about my weight (stupid I know), and almost passed out later that day. I admire all you regular donors, it's so needed.

[DeLana_RN, BSN, RN]

My blood type is O neg and I used to donate blood (and later platelets via apheresis) on a regular basis; then, a few years ago, I learned that I was no longer eligible because of a hypothetical risk of "Mad Cow Disease" due to living in Europe in the early 80's. Yeah, it's real likely I'll ever get Mad Cow Disease (especially since I don't eat meat) , but nevertheless it's the end of donating blood products for me

It's too sad that many potential donors are rejected for sometimes questionable reasons, while so many eligible individuals refuse to ever consider donating. But if that weren't the case, there would be no shortages.

DeLana

P.S. For the survey: When I first donated I was 22 years old and worked as an office clerk. At the time, I did not think I would ever become a nurse, although I had always been interested in nursing/medicine. One motivation to donate blood was to help out during a blood shortage.

[LynM75]

I donate probably 2 times a year, no more than that, otherwise my Hb is too low and I get rejected if I try again too soon. The last time was a wash they only got half of what they needed and it had to be thrown out, what a shame, the vein stopped giving...