How can we recruit more blood donors?

Show them a short video of patients and kids who might die soon if they don’t receive blood. Try contacting a local hospital and talking to a nurse or a doctor or a representative from the hospital to come and increase people’s awareness of why it’s good to donate blood. In my city, the hospital has some mobile vehicles that contain a donation center, so they visit many schools, companies, and universities throughout the year and collect blood. In my university, we usually make an awareness campaign few days before the vehicle arrives. I hope this helps.

If the Red Cross had not lied to so many for so many years about the URGENT need for blood (from which they were profiting at the time—there was an injunction against them that I am trying to find online), then it wouldn’t be like the boy who cried wolf. Now, when they may really need blood, people (like me) are fed up. 9–11 is a perfect example, they used very little blood in response to the event, but donation sites across the country collected it by the truck load. Much of the blood collected was destroyed (because they DIDN’T need it)!

@halabihazem I tihnk the tactic needs to be effective in a two second window . . . most places I see blood-mobiles as we call them people walk the other way around, or head down-50 mph to not engage the person asking for a donation.

Whatever OP does has to get ‘em quick.

Of course, going to a college campus would be the easiest way. The bloodmobile went to my campus once a week and I’m not even lying, you’d go to donate and they would have you sign a list to come back later b/c they were overbooked. . .

Can you look for people who have received blood to help you campaign? I think it would help motivate people to see a living, breathing example of somebody who might be dead today if not for blood donation.

How about distributing brochures showing important statistics about blood donation and benefits. Perhaps also include a description of the donation process, how long it takes, what pain to expect, where does the blood go, etc…

A lot of people will not “risk” going to a donation center unless they know what exactly happens inside and what to expect. In my university, I noticed that few people go at first, but then the number grows exponentially as more people ask them about what they did and how long it took them etc…

I’ve only donated blood 4 times in my life, although I’d be thrilled to give as often as I could. What’s the problem you ask? Each time I went, even though I’d eaten a meal beforehand like they suggested, and sat there resting in the chair for the alotted time, and drank the orange juice provided, each time I got up to leave, I got sick to my stomach and threw up, so they had to put me back in the donation chair with ice bags. Once I was finally able to leave, when I got home I was so wiped out that I’d have to nap for the rest of the day. I’m not anemic and have not been given any other reason for why this happens. The people at the blood bank said, “Please don’t come back to donate blood, maybe you could donate money instead.”

I would truly love to donate my blood, but no one has given me any reasons for what my problem might be and how it might be overcome. Even my regular doctor had no comment on the subject, other than, “Just don’t donate blood.” That’s not a good enough answer for me. It’s not helpful or useful to anyone.

Just for the record, going to the bloodbank is not scary and it doesn’t hurt and the staff is really nice. If you make an appointment, it should only take about 45 minutes tops. They sign you in, you go into a room where they ask you if you would like to be tested for aids (and informed after the fact), they ask you if you think you may have aids, then you mark an anonymous box letting them know NOT to use your blood, but they still take your blood because the questioner doesn’t know at the time whether you have aids or not. If you mark that you do in fact have aids, your blood will be taken, but discarded. Otherwise your blood will automatically be tested for aids and hepatitis (maybe a few other things that make your blood unusuable)

A lot of people are horribly afraid of needles and that is probably the main reason that people don’t donate blood. Not sure how to solve that particular problem.

I think they also take your pulse and check your blood pressure and ask you if you have any other medical conditions or illnesses. Then you go and sit/lay down on one of the comfy recliner chairs and they give you a little prick which has never hurt me (I used to be deathly afraid of needles when I was young, but thankfully I grew out of it after my first adult blood test that didn’t hurt).

You are usually in a room with other people (if that is a problem for you, you might be able to request a private area, but not too sure about that. I have a feeling this fact is a HUGE problem for some folks, being treated in public).

They usually have the TV on and a stack of magazines. It seems like the whole donation part took about 10 or 15 minutes.

You can watch the blood drain into the collection bag, or you can simply turn away from it. I was curious so I watched. A lot of people would not be able to tolerate watching the blood drain into the bag, so THAT is another reason people won’t donate blood.

After you’re done, they remove the needle (which also didn’t hurt, but squeamish people simply can’t deal with these kinds of things, which is yet another PROBLEM). They bandage your arm and then have you sit still in the recliner for another 10 minutes or so. Then they walk you over to a table and chairs and give you orange juice and/or donuts to replace some of your blood sugar. Most people can get up and walk away with absolutely no problems after about 20 minutes at this station. Then they have you sign up to get a reminder of when you can safely come back and donate again.

It’s pretty easy, I found it fascinating and I’m so chatty that I enjoyed talking with everyone while I was there. My problem is that I barfed each time I tried to get up from the juice table, even though I sat there as long or longer than the others.

Things to make it easier to donate:

Have more PSA’s on TV, and radio with quick reminders about how safe and easy and quick it can be. Show a person, especially a kid saying how a blood donation saved their life.

Have favorite national celebrities like Ellen or Oprah, or local baseball players or local personalities like newscasters do short PSA’s touting how easy and painless and helpful it is go give blood.

Some people think that everyone else is already donating blood so they don’t need to. You don’t need to have a 9/11 situation to need lots of blood on a regular basis, just ask @Mariah. Also, you need to make it be known that blood cannot be stored indefinitely, that is why people need to donate regulary, so there is enough in times of crisis, or for people who have conditions that necessitate regular transfusions.

Hit up local personalities and sports figures from towns and have them come out to greet people who sign up to give blood at the bloodmobile. Some people are more motivated to meet and greet a local “famous” personality than they are to get free orange juice.

Have people sign up with e-mail reminders of when it’s time for their next experience and make it super easy for them to make an appointment to come in (at their convenience).

Have some type of an informerical type of thing that runs in between some of the medical or police dramas, like NCIS etc. showing how pleasant and easy it is to come in to the clinic to donate blood. Show happy people actually giving blood, drinking juice and walking away happy. One of our big local hospital does something like that for it’s wellness program. They’re like mini informercials showing what they do and talking with some of the nice providers. It makes it feel like a real community thing that is being done for the benefit of everybody.

I think the biggest barrier to giving blood is people’s fear. Fear of the sight of blood, fear of needles, fear of being exposed in front of people, fear of being asked personal questions, fear of something going wrong. If you can address those fears, while at the same time making blood donation look like a “badge of good community service” and giving people a little reward (like greeting a local celebrity, or having a local restaurant donate snacks or tastings or coupons or whatever) and making it easy for people to be reminded that it’s time for them to come back, you will solve this problem.

One of our local radio stations, that had very popular hosts, was always putting on events that benefitted our community whether it was coming home parties for the troops, parties to celebrate the local little league team, to food bank projects right before Xmas and Thanksgiving to blood donation days. If you could get the local radio stations involved, the hosts can often make people feel like part of a real community and get people to “come down for the event” whatever that event might be.

Hope this gives you some ideas : )

I have heard that people who regularly give blood have far fewer heart attacks than those who don’t (like 50%), yet I have often wondered why the blood centers don’t use this information. Does it make it like a selfish act, instead of an altruistic one? Anyway, if verifiable, I think I would publicize this fact.

I would love to give blood, but because I lived in England for a year in 1984–85, they won’t accept my blood because of “mad cow disease.” Any chance of that prohibition being lifted sometime in the future?

Here’s one of the many articles I found on the topic of lowering heart disease in donors:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1997/09/970901072035.htm