RN Bloodmobile duties

[StarryEyed, RN]

Hello, I've always been interested in helping out w/the bloodmobiles. I came across a position for an RN on a BloodMobile and wanted some information from this community on experiences working for the bloodmobiles and what exactly an RN does. When I've donated blood before I noticed that the one's drawing blood are phlebotomists so I wanted to know what the duties of the RN are apart from regulations stating an RN must be onboard.

[vampiregirl, BSN, RN]

Different blood banks may do things differently, but RN's serve mainly in leadership roles at the organization I work for. Among their duties is to serve as a resource person, as donors are screened at every donation to ensure it is safe for them to donate and safe for someone to receive their blood. We have established criteria to determine if we accept a donor, but sometimes it takes a little questioning by someone with some medical knowledge to be able to make sure the proper criteria is being selected for a particular donor.

As far as the donations themselves, sometimes donors feel dizzy and occasionally faint, but for the most part rarely do emergencies occur. We have comprehensive protocols and many techniques that can be used to prevent and interrupt reactions, as long as the staff implement them. Once in a great while will someone sustain an injury from fainting and must be assessed to determine severity of injury.

Bloodbanks are unique in the medical field as that almost all of our donors are healthy people who want to be there to donate their blood products. Most of them are wonderful people. Also it's nice to be in a different place every day and often work with different people.

The flip side... the hours are long and irregular. I'm really not sure how my co-workers with small children do it. We have some operations on busses and those aren't bad for set-up, but we also have operations inside locations that must be loaded and unloaded in the blazing heat and freezing cold and pouring rain. Then there is the driving to and from the site, for me this can be up to 3 hours one way. Some of the staff can be younger and immature, but this can vary.

Overall, the positives way outweigh the negatives and most days I love my job:)

[MJB2010]

I was a phlebotomist for a bloodmobile during 9/11/2001 for a major national bloodbank. The RNS were "team leaders" and ran the blood drives. They did mostly paperwork checking (had to recheck every form we went over with donors) and they also handled any reactions of donors (passing out, seizures, etc etf) but those were mostly minor. If we had a major one (I can recall at least 3 or 4 in the two years I worked there) they just call an ambulance and send em to the hospital. So mostly paperwork,giving people ice packs, and leading the blood drives.

[StarryEyed, RN]

Vampiregirl, thanks for the info! I'm actually really excited about the chance to possibly work on a blood mobile. It's an on-call position so I think it's perfect for me so i can continue to search for a full-time job. The hours wouldn't bother me at all. I'm single, no children, and would gladly welcome doing something other than job searching non-stop.

MJB, That's so awesome that you were able to help with 9/11. A dream of mine has always been to go on a medical mission trip and to volunteer for major disasters.

Thank you both for the information. The interview is next week and I hope they like me :)