The development of the program of voluntary blood donation promotion in students population of the university of Belgrade

Abstract

Background/Aim. Given that in each country students represent the most progressive population group, as of 2001, the Blood Transfusion Institute of Serbia (BTIS) has been carrying the pro-gram of voluntary blood donation promotion and education of volunteers at the University of Belgrade (UB). In 2011, the BTIS intensified all activities at the UB. The aim of this study was to pre-sent activities performed from 2001 at the Blood Donors` Motiva-tion Department (DMD) of the BTIS related with increasing the level of awareness on voluntary blood donation in the Belgrade students` population, enhancing their motivation to become vol-untary blood donors (VBDs), increasing the number of blood do-nations at faculties of the UB, and increasing the number of blood donations in the UB students population compared with the total number of blood units collected by BTIS in Belgrade, with the emphasis on the year 2013. Methods. Initially, the applied meth-odology was based on encouraging students to donate blood through discussions and preparatory lectures, followed by organ-ized blood drives. Appropriate selection of volunteers at each fac-ulty was crucial. Besides their recognisable identity, they had to have remarkable communication skills and ability to positivly affect persons in their environment. The applied principle was based on retention of volunteers all through the final academic year, with the inclusion of new volunteers each year and 1,000 preparatory lec-tures on the annual basis. The activities were realized using two Facebook profiles, SMS messages and continuous notification of the public through the media. Results. There was an increase in the average number of students in blood drives at the faculties from 2011, when the average number of the students per blood drive was 39, followed by 43 in 2012 and 46 in 2013. The number of students who donated blood in 2013 increased by 21.3% com-pared with 2012 data. Conclusion. The applied concept highly contributed to generation and retention of future VBDs willing to regularly donate blood in the coming years, with a minimum risk of transmission of transfusion transmissible diseases markers.