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I too am the only dedicated Blood Banker . I have found it more and more challenging as staff is quickly retiring and being replaced with young grad generalists. I try to reinforce the theory behind all of the blood bank tests in order for them to grasp the whole picture for trouble shooting those patient's that are the exceptions to the rules but there is only so much new grads can absorb during training. They are learning our processes, a new computer system, and often have not been in Blood Bank for over a year and that was only for a rotation during school. It takes years to become a seasoned tech. Between training new techs, 6 month competencies, annual competencies, meeting changing standards, and dealing with shortages I find it a little overwhelming. Unfortunately I believe this is the new Norm and agree we are in a staffing crisis which needs addressed now.

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Stopped using Polyspecific AHG in lieu of Monospecific Anti-IgG for antibody screen/crossmatch tube testing in 1980 and of course Anti-IgG Gel testing since 1996. No occurrence since then that would cause me to reverse those decisions.

I agree. We are a clinical site for a university program. Our students spent 7 weeks in blood bank, but only 3-4 hours a day on the bench, max. The rest of their day will probably be spent on topics other than blood bank. Hands on seems to be the best way to solidfy what they read in books (if they bother to read - many won't) and lectures, but they get such a small amount of hands on time.

I am retiring in August and my replacement is concerned because there is no one with her level of experience to be her back up as she has been mine. We have recently lost 1 tech that just completed her training as a generalist and another who was completing her clinicals and had given us her intention to work here. Before that, the last 3 hires were fresh out of school and did their clinical rotations with us. We have 2 other techs retiring by March with several others on their heels. No one waiting in the wings. Better pay and benefits can be found with in 1 to 2 hours of our location. For us, all techs work at least 2 departments (days). There is no easy answer - training takes time. It seems that thee training offered today is less comprehensive than what I received back in the dark ages.

I'm the only dedicated blood banker at my facility. All our new hires are generalists, almost all of them are fresh grads or have minimal blood bank experience at much smaller facilities. They all have to be competent for antibody ID and corresponding antigen negative crossmatches, emergency release, mass transfusion, neonate transfusion, basic troubleshooting for the instrument, etc. My training period for staff is far longer than anywhere else in our lab and my competency assessments are a very lengthy ordeal to ensure that all staff members are performing at an acceptable level. I spend a lot of time reinforcing the concept of 'patient safety comes first'. I send out a lot of informational emails to reinforce policy and procedure. I work one-on-one with staff members if they have questions or problems. Automation and blood bank information systems help when you are dealing with non-dedicated staff to standardize and lock down your processes. You've got to have excellent SOPs that have exhaustive detail. Hiring smart, motivated people helps. I make myself available, even when I'm on vacation. BUT... doing all of that is just making it work with what you've got. It expects a great deal from your generalists. It doesn't solve the problem. It's an enormous problem and it's not going to get better unless something changes. Training programs are closing every year. The average age of blood bankers is increasing. Our profession is invisible to the world at large. Smart people can get better paying (and maybe less stressful) jobs in other areas of healthcare and other occupations. Administrations everywhere are expending a lot of energy and financial resources to attract and retain nursing staff. Do that do that for lab staff at your facility? Sigh!

I'm at a 220 bed hospital, we have dedicated Transfusion Medicine technologists on all shifts. We have hired new grads, they are able to work successfully alone with proper training and the willingness to learn on their part.

We are a very popular place to move (Central Oregon) and we are having trouble finding people to hire. To answer the original question, we have one dedicated first shift BBer and everyone else is a generalist. We have capped the number of people trained in BB (about 24) so that they get enough shifts in here to stay competent. They do pretty well. We have evening shift coordinators who are a bit more advanced and staff can always call me.

I am a generalist in a 270 bed trauma 2 hospital. The tech shortage is bad all over. If you are in a system that cannot find some way to attract new graduates (wages), then you are having real trouble. We can't hire people, in spite of the fact that we have a local college CLS program nearby that puts out about 15 graduates a year. We can' t even keep the students that have interned here! This shortage has been developing over years. We have been begging the administration here to wake up and do something, because its starting to get really bad. Unlike other times when we've had staffing shortages (been here for 30 years), there is no relief in sight. According to various articles in journals over the years, in the US we are seeing about 15000 openings a year with only about 6000 graduates. There will have to be some drastic changes to many labs to provide appropriate patient care. The changes have to be made NOW, they should have been done here years ago. Scott

Reviving a dead post.... I am growing increasingly concerned about staffing shortages in the Blood Bank. I'm in Texas and most of our good techs are aging out of the field. It is almost impossible to find and experienced blood bankers that are not already working full time somewhere. Filling positions with techs that have blood bank or micro experience is HARD! New techs are not staying in the field and lack the experience to work alone. At 51, I am at least 10 years younger than blood bank staff on all shifts and am worried about filling those roles over the next 5-10 years. What are your experiences?