When it comes to the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, you really have to admire the steps they have taken as an organization within the blood bank industry. 
Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center has been operating since January 1st, 1975. They currently serve 170 hospitals and associated medical care facilities within a 26-county area amongst the Texas Gulf Coast, Brazos Valley and East Texas regions respectively. It is extremely convenient that Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center currently has 17 Neighborhood Donor Centers, as well as a plethora of mobile site blood drives going on almost daily to meet the scheduling needs of their donors. Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center actually set their blood unit collection goal to 335,000 units of blood for 2011, which means they must receive over 900 units daily!
If you take a look at their recent track record when it comes to getting blood donors through their donor center’s doors, they have actually exceeded their own collection goals in 2007 by 18,000 more donations than in 2006, and in 2009 as well with over 11,000 additional units! To help them along in their endeavor is the successful Commit For Life program that really acts as a relationship-building cornerstone between the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center and its generous donors. Commit For Life goes beyond being a donor loyalty program and really encompasses the feeling of a partnership with the overall goal to save lives and continuously spread the word about Commit For Life and how donating blood can really make a positive impact, not just today, but in the future as well.
Donors relaxing at Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center's Sugarland Neighborhood Donor Center.
Incept and the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center began a collaborative partnership in 2005. At the root of the overall goal of helping the blood center achieve their unit collection goals lies a conversational marketing strategy that our Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) use daily in their efforts of recruiting, retaining and even converting blood donors for different apheresis donations. By 2009, Incept’s strategy had resulted in an astounding 22.74% increase in the number of monthly blood donor appointments for the blood center within a four-year period.
What makes this business partnership feel like Incept and The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center have developed a very positive relationship is easy. The blood center has taken many internal steps to make sure they (as an organization) are doing everything they can to bring in meaningful donations in a consistent manner and have made their annual goals crystal clear. Combining this with Incept’s industry-leading expertise of conversational marketing, and how to apply those strategies towards the blood center’s needs as our client, we are able to not only have meaningful conversations that produce positive results, but literally act as stand-in ambassadors and the human link between Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center and their donors.
At the end of the day, our relationship comes down to the realization of specific needs and goals. Rather than just taking a stab in the dark at addressing those things, taking a Lead by Listening stance on realistically obtaining those goals and letting our conversations make the results that speak for themselves is our mission.
Want to learn more about what Incept can do for your company or nonprofit organization? Find out more here!
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More often than not, when you need help with something, you need help with something specific.
In the case of blood banks and blood centers across America, that specific need is always changing and varying on a day-to-day basis. One day a blood center might be in critical need of A+ platelets, and the next day it might need as many B- red cell donors as possible.
This gentleman is doing a "Double Red Cell" donation.
When it comes to blood donor recruitment in the shoes of an Incept Conversational Marketing Expert (iCME), we don’t just recruit for whole blood donors, but also all the different kinds of apheretic donations. These donations include, plasma, platelets, and red cell donations or even “split” donations where half of the amount collected is platelets or plasma, and the other half is red cells.
But how do you go about converting a regular whole blood donor who has never attempted to try one of the above types of donations? Here are some of the methods that an Incept Conversational Marketing Expert (iCME) uses to convert whole blood donors to red cell or platelet donors as well.
- We help the donors understand the importance of red cells and platelets needed.
Sometimes people just need to understand why we are asking them as blood donors to do a different type of donation if the need arises. In the case of red cells, red blood cells carry oxygen through the body via the blood stream. In the event of trauma situations such as car accidents or surgeries, the oxygen from those red cells is what keeps your brain alive and functioning while you are treated. In the case of platelets, also known as white blood cells, their job is to fight off infections or sickness within your blood stream, and they play a vital role in a healthy immune system. When cancer patients go through chemotherapy, the radiation does not spare their platelets. Chemotherapy, while effective, can leave a patient very open to foreign illnesses and susceptible to getting sick.
These are just a few reasons why we ask donors to consider their donation choice:
- We thoroughly educate the donor about the process.
I remember when I ordered my newest bass guitar. I researched and learned about it all I could before ordering. The same kind of concept goes into when we convert whole blood donors to apheresis donors. We want to educate them about the process if they have never done it before. Really when it comes down to it, there are only a few differences when it comes to the donation process. You usually get a slightly smaller needle, so it’s generally more comfortable. With double reds you are only eligible to donate once every sixteen weeks, as opposed to once every eight weeks, so you also save time donating. You get saline placed back in your body during the “return” process when you get your other blood components back, so you are more hydrated and you are not leaving a full pint low. These are just a few of the benefits associated with a double red cell donation.
- We don’t just ask a donor to consider a red cell donation, we invite them to.
When recruiting blood donors, us Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) at Incept realize that most of these people have been asked consistently and constantly, over and over again to donate. We take a different approach by not asking them, but inviting them back to consider donating red cells or platelets. I know what you are thinking, “You’re still asking them. You are just phrasing it differently!” Yes and no. While we are still asking a blood donor to donate, by inviting rather than asking we are literally making them feel that they are more than just a blood donor. They are a valued individual whose time spent donating is appreciated just as much as the actual transfusable product. Inviting them back to donate, rather than just flat-out asking, also enables us to encompass the many great benefits of a blood center’s donor loyalty program or other special promotions as well!
Next time you donate blood, if you can, think about trying out a red cell donation or even a platelet donation. If you are still feeling a little unsure, no worries! We’ll help out in any way you can.
What questions do you have about red cell, platelet or plasma specific donations?
Image Credit: http://2.bp.blogspot.com
Ah yes, the holiday season is in full swing. This is easily one of my favorite times of the year.
No matter how old I get, I still love ripping into presents on Christmas morning. I always watch as much of A Christmas Story as I possibly can, and let’s just say don’t get between me and my honey baked ham if you want to keep all your limbs!
But no matter what time of year it is, the need for blood is always there. Each day in America, just to refresh your memories, about 38,000 blood donations are needed for patients, and currently about seventy-five percent of Americans will need a blood transfusion at one point in their lives. With those kind of statistics it is always important to remember to donate if you can during the holidays. Let’s take a brief second to review the reasons why blood donations are typically needed with more urgency during this awesome and festive time of year.
- Local high schools and colleges are typically on holiday break.
The American Red Cross receives about twenty percent of all of its blood donations from high school and college students! Needless to say, when high schools and colleges across the nation go on holiday or winter break it really doesn’t help the efforts of local blood banks and centers trying to keep their own respective blood supplies at safe levels.
- As holiday travel increases so do accidents.
Around the holidays from Thanksgiving through New Year’s in the United States, traffic increases on roads by anywhere from twenty-three to fifty-four percent! That is mind-boggling! Of course, when you put more people on the roadways together there are bound to be more accidents, and that is usually what happens. Blood is crucially needed for these types of situations, especially red cell donations for trauma situations and emergency surgeries.
- Many people feel they are too busy to donate!
We all know the holiday season is a very hectic time for many people – myself included. Many good folks, and even many regular blood donors, are trying the best they can to gear up for the in-laws, get the kids those special gifts and make sure the decorations are hung with care in anticipation of festivities. While all of this maybe true, once again, the need for blood never takes a holiday. That is why right now at Incept, as a Conversational Marketing Expert (CME) recruiting blood donors, we want to be as gentle (yet as assumptive) as we can to kindly get blood donors into their local donor centers to donate.
These are just a few of the main reasons why around this time of year your help is definitely needed. Just think of what one blood donation could do for someone else! Who knows, you could be helping someone’s family member be able to celebrate another year with them just from one whole blood donation. Plus, this is definitely a deed that is worthy of being put on a certain fat man’s nice list. So what is stopping you from donating if you’re eligible?
What are some other reasons that blood donations are slow during the holidays?
Photo Credit: http://laughingsquid.com/
When it comes to a few things, I’m not a very picky guy.
I enjoy pizza either in plain cheese form or loaded sky-high with toppings. When it comes to my love for automobiles, I can appreciate a car with fine lines regardless of the origin of make or model. Even down to my music choices as of late, I don’t discriminate between Marvin Gaye, The Misfits or Armin Van Buuren; just let the track play and the grooving commence. But when it comes to the wide world of Hematology (the overall study of blood), blood type is something where a certain sense of fastidiousness is definitely needed!
Overall, there are eight different blood types: A+, A-, B+, B-, O+, O-, AB+, and finally AB-. Blood type is something almost like your eye or hair color. You quite literally inherit that type genetically from your parents. Blood type is something that is crucial in medical emergencies and other situations, due to the fact that administering the wrong type of blood during a transfusion can result in uncompromising effects on the immune system. Knowing your blood type isn’t only extremely helpful for medical reasons alone, but as a blood donor you will know if it would be more helpful for you to do a whole blood donation or possibly an apheresis style donation.
Let’s take a quick glance at a few cases where blood type matters!
- Soldiers on the battlefield have their blood type labeled on their identification tags.
I was watching an interesting show on the Science Channel called Oddities. It’s a show about an oddball and, dare I say, avant-garde kind of shop that specializes in all sorts of weird and interesting, time-period-specific collectables that you wouldn’t normally see in most antique shops. In this episode particularly, there was an artist interested in purchasing a blood transfusion kit from World War I. Whenever a solider was injured to the point that they needed to receive a blood transfusion, they could quickly identify the type needed and perform the transfusion – literally straight from the donating soldier into whoever would be receiving it! A lot of donors I talk to while on the phones at Incept, usually donate while out and about. But talk about donating on the go!
- Different ethnic cultures have varying percentages of certain blood types.
Depending on where you are from or what your cultural background is can have a lot to do with your blood type, believe it or not. 
Blood centers and blood banks during times of shortages will even gently request that people of certain ethnicity donate in order to stabilize supplies of specific blood types. In America, Caucasian donors make up the highest percent of donors with A+, while Hispanic donors usually make up the highest percent of O+ type donors. People of Asian dexcent have the highest percentage of B+ blood donors.
- What does it mean to be a Universal Donor or Universal Recipient?
You might know or have heard that the blood type O- is the type of blood that, regardless of the type of blood the recipient has, can be accepted by everyone during a transfusion therefore, making them the universal donors of donating. When it comes to individuals who have AB blood types, they are the only ones able to receive transfusions of AB blood successfully, yet can still receive all other blood types making them the only universal recipients. The deciding factor: antigens (anything capable of inducing a reaction to our immune systems), which are proteins found on our red cells tissue and membranes. Really it’s the kind of antigens (if you have any even) and antibodies in your plasma that will determine which blood type you can receive.
We’ve just scratched the surface of this topic, since Hematology is quite an intensive field of study in medicine. Regardless, what other cases can you think of in which blood type matters?
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While out scouring the airwaves and surfing the dialer board for blood donors – as not just a blood donor recruiter, but a Conversational Marketing Expert (CME) at Incept - one of the things I learned very quickly about donating blood was how it can save the lives of up to three people. At the very least, a unit of blood is enough to make the lives of three people who need it more comfortable.
Whenever I try to describe the amount of blood taken during a simple whole blood donation, I often compare it to a small juice box or carton of chocolate milk. I say that because, when first time donors think of giving blood, usually I can hear the apprehension in their voices as they give the impression that they are visualizing an enormous amount of blood is going to be taken. In reality, like I said above, it is just 500 milliliters of blood or, for comparison, just about the size of a small box of juice.
What is stopping you from donating?
Even though donating blood can consist of taking time out of a day off from work, donating blood between classes, driving to the donor center and many other small steps before an actual donation takes place, the thing that last on beyond all those steps is the fact that someone is being helped as a final result of all the efforts made.
A whole blood donation is quite possibly one of the easiest blood donations one can do. It is called a whole blood donation because every part of the blood is taken and nothing is initially divided or separated during the donation process, you literally are donating it in whole form. When it comes to red cells from that donation, those can go to help people who are going through surgeries or victims of trauma situations, as a red blood cell’s main function is to transport oxygen from the lungs to cells all throughout our bodies via our blood stream. The plasma that is donated can also go to a wide variety of patient needs. Plasma-derived therapies create treatments for a range of rare and oftentimes genetic-based diseases, including hemophilia, primary immunodeficiency, and alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, as well as other medical conditions such as burns and electrical shock. When it comes to platelets, patients who need them most are generally undergoing chemotherapy or an organ transplant and have weakened immune systems and aren’t able to fight the illness as adequately. Platelets‘ (also called white blood cells) main objective is to take out foreign germs, viruses and other infections that can cause sickness. That is why when they receive platelets in the form of therapeutic treatments their lives really are improving because someone donated.
The above are just a few examples of how one simple whole blood donation and a little less than an hour of time can drastically improve the life of someone. When it comes to supporting blood donations I think I’m going to start bringing back the mantra:
If you haven’t donated – or it has been a while – what’s stopping you?
Image Credit: http://bucultureshock.com
Did you know that the United Nations (U.N.) projects a population increase from 6.8 billion people currently living in the world to a whopping 9.2 billion count by the time 2050 rolls around?
What is even more wild is the fact that the United States of America is to gain 117 million countrymen (and countrywomen) to add to its list of 321 million current residents, if the U.N.’s population prediction ends up coming true. When it comes to those involved in securing and supplying blood transfusable products, that can mean many things.
The need for blood only grows.
With the world population rising daily, not to mention the increasing need for blood donations and blood transfusable products, I have watched blood centers and blood bank organizations bend over backwards to keep with current trends and tie it all in with donating.
Social media is a term that I think is thrown around more loosely today than it even was a year ago. Additionally, social media is a phrase used to describe the many different facets and avenues of communicating online in a way that is continuously growing and not just used to share one type of information, but pretty much anything humanly possible. We log in to Facebook to update our status. We tweet from Twitter hoping to make an unknown connection out there with someone who is like-minded in thought. We make YouTube videos in a genuine effort to not only replicate the mainstream media we see, but to literally become the media itself. Blood banks and organizations are hip to the times too. Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center is active not only on 
Facebook, but Twitter (@commitforlife) as well. They use both as platforms to not only appreciate their donor base, but to educate, inform and simply stay connected.
I’ve also noticed a big increase in the practicality of donor loyalty programs. Donor loyalty programs aren’t just a way for a donor to earn a t-shirt or shiny pen for donating a gallon anymore. They are a way for a donor to donate blood, earn redeemable points to spend on multiple things – ranging from t-shirts and gift cards to gas cards and cards to other shopping locations. While I do hear a lot of people tell me they don’t donate for points or for rewards, it serves as a nice gesture towards a donor base, and it is one that LifeSource and Central Blood Bank have taken on with great intentions. Both organizations are a part of and support the Brighten Life donor rewards program with regards to their own donor base.
Let me tell you from firsthand experience being a Conversational Marketing Expert (CME), while we know many blood donors do not donate for the reward, it certainly does spike their interest when they know they are eligible to receive a $25 gift card with just one more donation. It is also fun to let loyal donors know they have a huge amount of points they can spend, and hearing their reaction to the news is generally a treat. Most of all, donor loyalty programs keep people interested in not only donating blood, but their personal donation history with an organization. And that is a valued point often missed.
Despite these technological and rewarding trends, the need for human interaction will always be there. That is why Incept really does take its prestige and level of experience within the field of blood donor recruiting extremely seriously. A Conversational Marketing Expert (CME) is more than just your run-of-the-mill telerecruiter. We are not here to sell anyone anything. We are not even here to beg people for blood donations. We are here to make donating blood easy, to inform people who might not know of a blood drive just right down the street from them. Most of all, we are here to strengthen the relationship of the donors on behalf of the clients we serve through high-quality and productive conversations.
We are able to do this because we are people who believe in the good that donating blood can really do in this world. Our Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) are blood donors themselves! Telerecruiting is not going away, by any means, but will continue to evolve. Incept and its services will continue to trend throughout the blood bank industry thanks to world-class service and the simple fact that we view ourselves as the human connection between a blood donor and a donation being made. It really is that important.
When it comes to trends in society, what do you think makes a successful trend? Why do you think other trends turn into dying fads?
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I always find it puzzling when people ask me what I do at Incept.
More often than not I feel like I’m a very gray-area kind of guy and I have the ability to change-up my guise depending on if I’m shooting a video, leading a brain storming session in a committee or going back to my roots and recruiting blood donors across America to donate once again. I always mentally refer to my cubical as “the trenches” because quite literally the phone lines can be considered the front lines.
According to the American Red Cross approximately 38,000 units of blood are needed each day and every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood. And even more shocking, while less than 38% of the nation is eligible to donate blood, almost 75% of the population will at least need one blood transfusion in their lifetimes. My role as a Conversational Marketing Expert (CME) isn’t just to come into work, mindlessly punch the time clock and then proceed to zombie along in my calls, but I am the proverbial bridge and human connection between blood centers and their valued, voluntary blood donors. It’s crazy because most of the time I am not even in the same state as the person I call, but they will use the word “you” to not only describe who they are talking with, but the organization they have quite literally gave a part of themselves to. That is when you know you are the link between someone thinking about donating and someone actually committing to do it.
My job is not to cleverly persuade people to donate blood like some sly salesman or to persistently plead and beg for them to donate, but to converse with them
to see what I can do to make it as easy and convenient as possible to encourage donors to be continuous lifetime donors. That is what being a Conversational Marketing Expert is all about. Being conversational is really just a small bit of the bigger picture. Anyone can talk, but there is a difference when you can apply your gift of gab in a productive manner. The marketing part really isn’t marketing at all, it is just using information, requests, and things you have heard in your conversations with the donor to tailor not only the conversation you are having with them, but the donor experience as well. Sometimes you can almost hear what a person is saying by listening to what they haven’t said and it takes a very third person mindset to comprehend that while you are actually engaged in a conversation. Finally being an expert really is the bow-tie that holds being a Conversational Marketing Expert together. So you can be conversational and think on your toes, you also can use that quick thinking to make convenient suggestions, but how much of your product or service do you know? For me to be a real Conversational Marketing Expert at Incept, I have to know what I’m talking about and know what impact I can make. That is where being an expert comes in handy. From being at Incept for a year and a half, I not only advocate donating blood and know most current statistics and information on the topic, but even when I’m not working I cannot help, but promote it amongst my own peer’s when the subject comes up.
What it comes down to is, I am someone who believes in what I do. Incept is just the type of company where we all realize our own individual roles make up a greater movement. To me, especially knowing that when I am talking with a blood donor, I’m not asking them to come donate blood, I’m inviting them to save lives in their community. That is something that doesn’t take a phone voice. It doesn’t take overly worked voice inflections either. All it takes is a simple conversation from human-to-human, and I am that connection.
How can having a different perspective on what you do change how you do it?
Photo Credit: http://prometheus.med.utah.edu
“Fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.” – Dale Carnegie
Stacey stormed down her apartment stairs in a frantic, frenzied matter full of commotion. Reaching into her pocket and quickly pulling out her cell phone, the quick gasp and bewildered look on her face were enough to convey an urgent sense of tardiness. Rushing down the rugged sidewalk towards her car, she started to feel a sense of apprehension about what lay ahead in the next hour or so. But, hastily, she climbed into her hatchback and pressed onwards.
How do you overcome your fear?
Stacey suffers from a phobia but not just any phobia. She has been dealing with Trypanophobia (the fear of pins/needles) for a while now, but was inching closer and closer to fully embracing and conquering her fear. Shots as a kid were always horrible. She even seemed to stare at her own grandmother with cautious perception while she knitted. Whatever the root cause, Stacey was absolutely horrified of needles.
It wasn’t until she saw that her college campus was holding a local blood drive that she decided she had to donate. She ultimately couldn’t keep living in fear of something so small… well, not small to her anyways. You see, Stacey’s mother was recuperating and in remission after an enduring battle with breast cancer. She reminisced about the times where she thought her mother wouldn’t make it and remembered hearing about how many platelet and red cell transfusions her mother constantly had to undergo in dealing with the effects of chemotherapy. So after her photography class one day when she saw a flyer promoting a blood drive in the nearby student union. Something inside her just clicked, and she knew it was the right way to not only conquer her fear but give back to someone who might be in the same situation her and her family once were.
As she pulled up to the student union, the caterpillars that were churning in her stomach earlier had gone through their metamorphosis and were now over-sized butterflies flapping up a good amount of anxiety within Stacey. “What if I pass out? What if I get scared and nervous and throw up? What if it is more painful than I expected?” she thought, frightened and aloud. She was so close though now, she just couldn’t give in to the fear of a tiny needle poke.
The last time Stacey felt this nervous she couldn’t remember. After making her way inside, filling out a detailed health questionnaire and having her vital signs checked she was on deck to donate blood for the first time. A smiling woman in medical scrubs came over. “Are you ready, dear?” she politely asked. Stacey just nodded her head and was lead to an open chair. Her pulse was pounding so loud at this point. She even heard one of the English professors in attendance start to quote The Tell-Tale Heart. The nurse who had led her back approached once again, this time with the dreaded needle in hand ready to extract Stacey’s blood. “You can look away dear. This won’t take long at all. I’ll count to three,” she said. Stacey instantly grimaced and covered her eyes, looking in the opposite direction. She was so scared she didn’t even hear the nurse count. “Is it in yet? I’m ready,” Stacey said, her hoodie’s sleeve still covering her eyes.
As she looked down and saw her left arm with the needle in it, she came to terms with things. “I thought you said you were going to count to three?” she asked the nurse. “I did! You didn’t hear me?” the nurse laughed. It was nothing like what Stacey expected – just a poke for about a second, not a huge gaping wound or a bout of excruciating trauma. It was nothing but a little, tiny, almost pain-free pinch. Stacey thought it was even crazier how fast the process was! She donated whole blood and was done with her donation in about ten minutes.
As she walked out of the makeshift donation area, she started smiling and almost blushed, as she thought herself quite silly and yet proud for overcoming her fear head-on. The best part wasn’t even the free Chipotle gift card she got from donating but the fact that she was going to help another girl’s mom going through breast cancer to beat it. To her, that was awesome.
It goes to show you that sometimes the fears and misconceptions we carry about things are really nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
We are having a blood drive here at Incept today! However, aside from just donating blood, tell me about a time when you had to overcome your fear and face it head-on? Did you resolve your fear? What did you learn?
Image Credit: http://bekahstorey.files.wordpress.com
My adrenaline was still rushing from the Steelers’ Super Bowl XL victory when I showed up to our blood drive on that Monday afternoon.
Ever since high school, I had volunteered to help serve snacks, but I’d never actually donated blood before. However, as a relatively new college student and a thrilled football fan, I decided that it was time for me to make my first donation. Little did I know that by donating that January day, I would get to meet Big Ben, the Steelers’ championship quarterback…
The donation process got off to a great start. My phlebotomist was a Seahawks fan, so we exchanged a few friendly. Everything was going smoothly, but just as I finished filling the donation bag, my feet started to get cold and my vision became just a little fuzzy. I could slowly feel myself passing out.
Sure enough, about seven seconds later, I was out cold in the donation bed.
According to a friend, I was only out for a few seconds, but during that time, I had a full-length dream that Big Ben and I were at a coffee shop talking about the season, the big game, and other random topics that best friends normally talk about. It felt like our conversation lasted for hours, and, needless to say, when I woke up, I was a little heartbroken that it wasn’t real.
Maybe I didn’t technically meet Ben, but it sure felt like it at the time. The good news is that although my first blood donation experience wasn’t perfect, it didn’t deter me from coming back and trying again. Nowadays I make sure to eat a good, iron-rich meal and drink plenty of fluids prior to my appointments. During the donation process, I recline my chair and keep a drink nearby.
Today, several years later, I still have a great first-donation story to share. I’m happy to report that I’ve made several more successful donations since that day, and I’ve yet to rendezvous with Big Ben again!
Share It NET!
We’re finally Sharing It! A few weeks ago, the “Share it. Know it. Own it. Repeat.” subcommittee rolled out Incept’s very first internal electronic message board, appropriately named “Share It NET.” If you haven’t already begun incorporating Share It NET into your daily routine, now is the time to start! The intranet displays all sorts of new and relevant information, from program-related changes and “tips of the day” to internal news and updates about Incept-specific events.
Now, if you miss a day or two of work, you no longer have to worry about relying on paper memos to catch up on what you missed. You no longer have to worry about accidentally throwing a memo away. Share It NET stores all important company information, and it is accessible with just a click of your mouse! A link to the Share It NET can be found at the top of your livestats page, and there are separate pages for Incept Saves, Incept Results and Incept Internal updates.
If there is anything specific that you would like to see posted on the intranet, please let us know! If you have any special tips, tricks or FYIs related to a particular program, Share It with a supervisor or coach so that they can submit it to be posted. And, of course, if you have any questions or suggestions for improvement, Share It with anyone on the “Share It. Know It. Own It. Repeat.” subcommittee.
We listened when you told us that communication needed improved, and we’re still listening for ways to get even better!
Image Credit: http://5goldenrings.wordpress.com
If you ask a blood donor when they started donating blood, a lot of them will tell you that their first
Like most teenagers, whenever a blood drive came to Minerva High School I was more than happy to sign up!
donation was at their high school blood drive.
Why there? Let’s be honest. While it’s always a good feeling to help out, when you’re that age the real reason you sign up for a blood drive is because it gets you out of class for an hour or so.
I know this, of course, because I was one of those kids.
Oh sure, I liked knowing that I was helping someone out somewhere. But mostly, I wanted a good excuse to skip Algebra and the first few minutes of Gym. It’s been more than five years since I graduated, and I’ve been donating regularly ever since.
What is it that keeps me going back for more, you ask?
After graduation, I went straight into nursing school, and the first class I signed up for was Anatomy and Physiology. Our professor was a huge advocate of donating blood and encouraged that same passion in his students. I learned a lot in that class, but the lesson that stuck with me the most was how much of an impact one blood donation really has.
One blood donation has the potential to help three people. By centrifuging that one pint of blood, doctors are able to use the plasma, platelets and red blood cells separately to treat their patients. If you’re anything like me, hearing that each blood donation is practically a three-for-one deal, you might think that we must not need to donate terribly often to keep the blood supply at a safe level. On the contrary, you’d be amazed at how quickly hospitals go through blood.
On average, 50 units of blood are used to treat victims of car accidents, whereas someone undergoing a bone marrow transplant might use 120 units of platelets and 20 units of whole blood. It might take several blood drives to collect enough blood for each recipient, and nine times out of ten the blood someone receives comes from donors in the recipient’s area.
I’ve been fortunate enough that neither I nor a loved one have ever needed a transfusion, but after seeing how quickly hospitals go through blood and how few people actually donate, how could I not want to help out?
I may not get to skip class anymore, but I still like to give blood whenever I can. Additionally, through my work at Incept, as a blood donor recruiter, I’m able to help other donors find blood drives in their area. It’s something in which I believe very strongly, and I try to pass that enthusiasm on to others. I guess you could say that I went from being a blood donor of convenience to a donor of dedication.
What made you start donating blood?
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