Every year on June 14th, countries around the world celebrate World Blood Donation Day to raise awareness about the global need for safe blood and blood products and to thank voluntary unpaid blood donors. Organized by the World Health Organization (WHO), this annual event highlights how donated blood saves millions of lives every year.

The Constant Need for Blood According to the WHO, giving blood is an act of solidarity that saves lives and enhances community resilience. Safe blood is a critical resource for treating those in emergency situations, surgical patients, pregnant women with complications, children with severe anemia, and many others. Yet blood shortages remain a major challenge in many parts of the world.

The WHO estimates that blood transfusion services need to collect blood from 3-5% of a country’s population to meet yearly needs. However, in many nations, less than 1% of the population donate blood annually. This chronic shortage leads to preventable deaths and suffering.

Promoting Voluntary Unpaid Donation World Blood Donor Day commemorates the birthday anniversary of Karl Landsteiner, the Nobel Prize winning scientist who discovered the ABO blood group system in 1900. The day provides an opportunity to motivate more people to become regular voluntary unpaid blood donors.

Voluntary unpaid donors are the safest group of blood donors because they are least likely to withhold facts that could make them ineligible to donate. When donors receive compensation, they may be motivated to donate even if they have conditions that put them at higher risk of carrying transfusion-transmissible infections.

Building a Safe and Sufficient Blood Supply Each edition of World Blood Donor Day carries a specific theme to draw attention to key aspects of blood donation. For 2023, the theme is “Giving blood is an act of solidarity. Join the effort and save lives.”

By promoting solidarity through voluntary unpaid donation, the WHO aims to increase public awareness, identify shortcomings in national blood transfusion services, and strengthen donor recruitment and retention programs globally. Only through sustained voluntary donations can the world build up safe and sufficient blood supplies.

Whether you’ve donated before or not, World Blood Donation Day is the perfect opportunity to make an appointment at your local blood center. A single donation can help save multiple lives. Give blood and be a part of the global effort to ensure universal access to safe and affordable blood transfusion services.

References:

• World Health Organization Blood Safety Page: https://www.who.int/teams/global-malaria-programme/prevention/blood-safety
• World Blood Donor Day Page: https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-blood-donor-day

More than ever, the medical field needs committed people passionate about helping others. The passion for helping others regain their health and saving their lives makes it one of the most respected professions. The job of a healthcare professional requires them to have a strong sense of morality.

Indeed, the medical field offers a meaningful profession with many opportunities. But at the same time, it holds a strong appeal for those interested in helping others because only such people can understand the true meaning of their work.

So if you’re interested in pursuing a healthcare career, here’s what the medical field expects from you as a healthcare professional!

A Meaningful Profession

Behind every aspiring medical student, there’s a motivation that leads them to this path. A calling to help others, dedication and commitment to work hard, and the perseverance to help patients restore their health and vitality, often at personal cost, is what the medical field requires from you. No wonder why medics earned the title of “frontline warriors during the current pandemic.”

In some people, this passion for helping others and a strong feeling of empathy are innate, which is why they want to give back to society. While in others, this compassion may become their desire to enter the medical field.

The Feeling to Help Others Efficiently

The quality of life of people depends on their health. It dictates how we function in our everyday lives. What can be more rewarding than helping people restore their health? This is the sole objective of a healthcare professional. It is this objective that makes this profession so rewarding.

The medical field requires people with a passion for bringing relief to patients and are ready for an ongoing effort to treat illnesses successfully.

Taking Measures to Prevent Disease

Your work as a healthcare professional is not limited to treating the patients coming to your clinic but to take measures to eliminate illnesses and seek more improved treatment methods.

Research shows that healthcare professionals may not offer the quality care patients require if they’re not emotionally connected with them. Factors such as passion at work, engagement, and meaning of their profession prove to be protective factors in the medical profession, particularly in nursing, phlebotomy, etc.

Therefore, the medical field is in need of people who have a passion for being a part of the medical field to help society and provide them with better healthcare facilities.

Passionate to Improve the Quality of Life of Others

As an aspiring healthcare professional, you may have found your calling uniquely and want to contribute to society by providing innovative health practices and improved treatment methods. Other students may have different motivations than yours. Regardless of this motivation, medical institutes aim to facilitate medical aspirants to pursue their careers and practice their passion.

Whatever your professional sector of origin and your initial training, improving your skills to become a caregiver is always possible. Phlebotomy Career Training Institute is a leading medical health careers and certifications institute that helps facilitate the transition of individuals into the medical field, providing them with world-class training and stressing the importance of being compassionate and kind to others.

The Phlebotomy Career Training Institute of Healthcare offers passionate students a wide range of programs on medical health careers and world-class certifications, both online and in class, allowing them to rehearse their journey to becoming a healthcare professional in every possible way.

We focus on training students in small classrooms so they can have maximum interaction with their instructors. This ensures that each individual receives the required attention, can spend quality time with instructors and is fully prepared for a career in medicine.

Contact 888-410-6416 or visit the website to learn more about the courses we offer and to enroll in your desired field!

copyright 2023 PCT

Any nurse will agree that the risk of back injury in their profession is very real.  Floor nursing comes with its own set of stressors but lifting and pulling up patients in bed can cause serious harm to the lower back and spine.

According to the American Journal of Critical Care over 38% of nursing staff across the United States suffered debilitating back injuries in 2003.  The Bureau of Labor and Statistics reported that nurses in private industry took approximately 20,000 days off from work throughout the United States due to back and other related work injuries.  If these statistics aren’t staggering enough the BLS also reported that nurses have a 104 chance out of 10,000 to experience a work-related injury.  These statistics indicate that nursing related injuries are the highest of most other professions with Women’s MMA being excluded.

No nurse wants to be sidelined from their profession due to agonizing back pain and immobility, which is why this topic is so important for nurses.  Nurses must take great care in practicing lifting hygiene.

Injuries related to improper lifting

Improper lifting of heavy patients increases intra-abdominal pressure which can translate into the risk of prolapsed internal genitals and lower spine injury.   Add to this milieu medications such as NSAID’s and poor dietary habits and you have the perfect storm for the beginnings of osteoporosis.  Common injuries found among nurses include lower back strain, L4 and L5 herniations and sciatic nerve damage.

As teachers and care givers nurses provide the best advice to their patients but rarely listen to their own advice.  Nurses should pay close attention to the red flags when they begin to feel lower back pain.  An easy method is to use the SOCRATES pain tool.  This addresses eight features of pain which are, Site, Onset, Characteristic, Radiation, Associated factors, Timing, Exacerbating Factors and Severity.  Many nurses are familiar with the OLD CARTS method which is also applicable.

As care givers it is important to also provide care to ourselves.  Taking time to evaluate aches and pains should be a daily requirement for nurses.  Nurses should ask themselves what they can do differently on their shift to lower their chances of injuring their back.

The key is to know when to recognize that there is a problem before the pain becomes too intense or causes long term damage.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), self-care is defined as “what people do for themselves to establish and maintain health, and to prevent and deal with illness.”

Let’s review some of the basics of nursing self-care.

1. Know when to rest
2. know when to ask for help (whether it is job related or personal)
3. know how to relax
4. know how to process stress, emotions and frustration
5. know how to lift, when to lift and when not to lift.
6. know when to say, No!

Don’t forget what stress can do to the body!  Stress hormones produce cortisol.  Cortisol also lowers the body’s ability to fight infections by lowering immunity.  Stress can also cause lipids to accumulate to in the arterioles which can lead to atherosclerosis.  Lowered immunity can also cause injured muscles to heal more slowly, thus making re-injury to the site lower to heal.

Basic proper lifting review.

• Stand with your feet about 2 feet or so apart
• Squat down, bending at the hips and knees only
• Keep your back straight.
• Slowly lift by straightening your hips and knees (not your back)
• Hold the load as close to your body as possible

Factors that can exacerbate back pain

Nurses work unceasingly.  They come to work when they are sick, tired, in pain or if their world is falling apart.  Nobel indeed.  But healthy?  Not so much.  If the hospital provides mental health days or sick days, take those days provided.  Many nurses forgo their sick time to earn more money for noble causes, such as daycare, school supplies and bills.  What they need to remember is that they, themselves are also a noble cause and must receive care as well.

To have a long fulfilling career in nursing, it is important that the nurse takes care of themselves. Good lifting techniques and proper attention to self-care can provide nurses with a longevity of helping others.

If you would like to learn more about Phlebotomy Career Training and the courses that are offered through our school please visit; https://pctedu.fusedash.com/

We are located at 28050 Ford Rd. Ste B

Dearborn, MI 48135

Our phone is: 734-762-3220

Fax: 734-762-1718

Whether you would like to take online classes or in person classes, we have the program for you.

Nancy Lydia Kimmel is a MSN Board Certified Nurse Practitioner in Michigan and teaches classes at Phlebotomy Career Training Center.

We’re referring to PCT’s IV Technician Certification, an entirely online certification that helps brief you on the legal aspects of intravenous insertion and flushing, the principles surrounding it, the safety precautions involved, hazards, and treatment. The course also reviews Occupational Health And Safety Administration (OSHA) protocols. It discusses in-depth the equipment involved in venipuncture and the physiology and psychology of a person who has been treated via IV.

The comprehensive course spans roughly 30 hours of instruction and 10 hours of practice sessions. Of course, since the course is online, these practice sessions are carried out with a camera and an intravenous mannequin arm. The arm mimics the structure of a real arm and is meant to be used to practice procedures in the presence of an instructor. The instructor then provides feedback regarding improvements and important considerations.

As one of the many fully online courses in PCT’s catalog, the IV Technician course is designed to accommodate the busy schedule of the working adult. You have six months from the date of purchase to complete the entire course, giving you ample time to finish the 40 hours of material. Students are also given a copy of the national IV Technician exam guide, and the course helps prepare them to take the exam. The web-based course is accessible via mobile, desktop, and tablet and is available to students 24/7.

The course is intended for individuals who’ve already been practicing as a  phlebotomist, medical assistant, registered nurse, LPN, NP, PA, MD, dental hygienist, dentist, EMT, Paramedic, or Fire Fighter, and also requires prior knowledge of patient care and venipuncture.

The material covered in the course is of particular benefit to nurses who form the frontline of healthcare. The precautions, hazards, and treatments discussed in the course help provide in-depth knowledge regarding critical aspects of care.

Upon successfully completing the course, students are also entitled to CEUs accredited by the National Telemetry Association through CAPCE. The credits serve to showcase that you’ve been putting in hours to keep your skills at the cutting edge and help further qualify you as a medical professional.

The IV Technician course is only one of the many courses PCT has on offer, including a 20 certification bundle, strictly for in-classroom students. If you’d like to know more about the IV Technician Certification course, or any of the other courses offered by PCT, consider visiting their website or dropping by their location in Dearborn, Michigan.

Health Spas have steadily appreciated in terms of popularity over the last few years. While the industry did receive a setback in the form of the recent pandemic, with life, as usual, resuming around the country, there’s no doubt that it’s on its way to recovery as well.

If you’re wondering what this has to do with medical assistants, you might just be surprised by what we have to tell you. Vitamin Drip Therapy is an IV treatment that sports all sorts of benefits, from anti-aging and skin health improvement to curing those post-weekend hangovers. While the positive and negative effects of the treatment itself have been debated heavily in medical circles and on celebrity talk shows, the jury’s still out on whether they’re concretely beneficial.

Medical Assistants and Lab Technicians are the prime candidates for administering drip therapy in health spas. If you’ve got a specialization as an IV Technician, then that qualifies you even further. So if you’re a medical assistant who’s looking to branch out or broaden your professional horizons, this might be just the opportunity you’ve been looking for.

Of course, the opportunity we’re talking about comes in the form of an online IV Technician Certification program offered by Phlebotomy Career Training.

And that’s not all. If a career in health and beauty applications doesn’t quite float your boat, you could still use the added knowledge to take on a more advanced career in assisting practitioners. Of special note are physician’s offices where drip therapy is provided.

Even for those who aren’t looking to branch out or change career paths, the IV Tech program is accredited through the National Telemetry Association (NTA) by CAPCE. It allows them to earn continuing education credits that help update their credentials while they keep practicing. Since the course comes with an online option, professionals can adjust and learn flexibly as they get time.

If you’d like to know more about the IV Technician course and what it offers, get in touch with us here.