Can anyone share how their facility's Transfusion Service yearly competencies are set-up? When I took over as the BB Supervisor here, there was only one competency per year and only the previous supervisor was doing the CAP surveys. I have made a schedule for the surveys so that everyone gets to participate (they are thrilled) and try to do at least one 'dry' and one 'wet' competency per year. However, I was told that I need to come up with a more extensive competency program and was just curious what kinds of things other facilities do as part of their competency checks. Thanks for any input.

We do a variety of things and try to change it up some from year to year. One thing I have found that works really well and kills two birds with one stone is a procedure manual competency test. I include a question on any changes that have been made to the P&P manual to be sure they are truely aware of the changes and then I throw in questions that pertain to things that I feel they may need a refresher on. If you have had staff asking questions on something recently or several of them making the same error - things like that usually help more than just the person asking the question. In addition I may use the CAP survey or additional wet samples or even just make a copy of a complete Ab workup that they have completed in the year. I also have competencies on all of the major testing performed that list out each individual step in the process - these are used for first time competency assessment but occasionally I will pull them out for the seasoned staff. Every once in a while you find one little step that they did not realize was part of the procedure even though they have been performing it for years!

Have fun!