Transfusion Medicine Elective

Description:  This is a two week elective.  Fellows will spend one week attending the Transfusion Medicine Course at Dedham, MA.  This course is directed towards pathology residents with a focus on transfusion medicine.  In addition, the fellow will spend one week at the American National Red Cross in Farmington, CT.  The fellow will be supervised by faculty at the ANRC as well as apheresis personnel.  The fellow will meet with faculty over the week to review select topics.  It is also expected that the fellows will learn the basic principles of Transfusion Medicine during the course of their training and with attendance at the Core Curriculum Series.

Goals and Objectives:

The fellow will apply the principles of Transfusion Medicine to the care of patients with cancer and disorders of the blood.

Evaluation:  At the end of the rotation, the fellow will be evaluated utilizing the locally adapted evaluation form available electronically on MEC.  This will be a composite evaluation completed by the director of the elective.  Additionally, the elective director will discuss the evaluation with the fellow. 

Competencies:

I. Patient Care

A.     The fellow should be able to distinguish one transfusion reaction from another and propose a plan of care for each.

B.     The fellow should be able to select appropriate methods to prevent transfusion reactions in a given patient.

II. Medical Knowledge

A.     The fellow should be able to interpret the results of HLA typing, basic crossmatch serology and blood typing.

B.     The fellow should be able to explain the different types of transfusion reactions (acute and chronic).

C.     The fellow should be able to demonstrate blood component collection.

III. Practice Based Learning

A.     The fellow will be able to apply laboratory tests to patient care.

IV. Interpersonal Communication Skills

A.     The fellow must be able to communicate effectively with clinicians to both understand the patient history and physical examination and to communicate clearly and interpret for the clinician the blood bank testing results.

B.     The fellow will communicate clearly with other Blood Bank staff.

C.     The fellow will explain the risks of blood transfusion to patients as they learn to solicit an informed consent.

V. Professionalism

A.      The fellow will treat all members of the laboratory team with respect, acknowledging that all functions in the laboratory are important in order to have a meaningful test function.

B.     The fellow will be mindful of confidentiality issues when reviewing laboratory specimens.

VI. Systems Based Practice

A.      The fellow will be able to integrate knowledge from the laboratory into the total care of the patient.