Subject Description

A TSO has the potential to transform transfusion safety from a blood bank initiative to a whole-hospital program. During this portion of the live workshop, attendees will discuss how TSOs can be effective change-agents in their hospitals. The session will begin with a presentation from a guest TSO describing their daily work as a TSO. The remaining topics covered include soft skills, transfusion service basics, blood administration essentials, information on informed consent, transfusion audit basics, massive blood loss strategies, and alternatives to blood transfusion.

Learning Objectives

  1. Describe soft skills valuable for a TSO
  2. Explain the essential components of transfusion informed consents
  3. Develop a process to perform and record transfusion audits
  4. Discuss strategies in addressing massive blood loss
  5. Identify alternatives to blood transfusion

Level of Instruction

Intermediate

Author / Speakers

Mary Townsend, MD

Mary Townsend, MD

Senior Medical Director
Vitalant Inc

Mary is a clinical pathologist with a subspecialty of Transfusion Medicine and Blood Banking. As Senior Medical Director at Blood Systems, she has oversight of donor eligibility, donor safety and evaluation of recipient serious transfusion reactions from client hospitals. Mary is a member of the AABB Donor Biovigilance Committee and the AABB Donor Questionnaire Task Force. She is the recipient of the AABB President's Award for her work in the development of the donor Biovigilance System.

Houston 'Buddy' Nguyen

Houston "Buddy" Nguyen BSCLS, MT (ASCP), BIT

Director of Hospital Engagement and Education
Cerus Corporation

Houston “Buddy” Nguyen is a Hospital Implementation Director at Cerus Corporation where he is focused on assisting hospitals with implementing INTERCEPT, or pathogen-reduced, products. Buddy is a medical technologist with degrees in Clinical Laboratory Science from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and in Information Technology.

He has experience working in hospital clinical laboratories and spent more than 10 years in laboratory management before successfully implementing a Patient Blood Management (PBM) Program as a Transfusion Safety Officer (TSO) at Northwest Texas Healthcare System for three years. He then moved on to Blood Systems Inc. (BSI) where he was a TSO and Quality Source Consultant. At BSI, Buddy was also a standing faculty member and co-developer of the Blood Systems Transfusion Safety Officer Training Program.

Additional Information

Cerus Corporation is approved as a provider of continuing education programs in the clinical laboratory sciences by the ASCLS P.A.C.E.® Program.

P.A.C.E.: 368-061-22
Contact Hours: 7.0
Expires on: May 21, 2023 at 11:59 pm CT

Professional Acknowledgment for Continuing Education

This program is approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number CEP15148 for 7.0 contact hours

CBRN: 124
Contact Hours: 7.0
Expires at: May 21, 2023 at 11:59 pm CT

California Board of Registered Nursing

Technical Requirements and Assistance

Minimum software requirements:

  • Operating system
    • • Windows XP SP2
    • • Mac OS X 10.9
    • • iOS 7
    • • Android 4
  • Web browser
    • • Internet Explorer 9
    • • Safari 7
    • • Latest version of Chrome or Firefox
  • Browser plug-ins
    • • Learning activities may be encoded as MP4 videos. Your browser must support MP4 playback natively or through the operating system to view these videos.

Minimum hardware requirements:

  • Desktops, laptops
    • • 512MB of RAM
    • • 200MB of hard drive space
    • • Intel x86 processor
  • Mobile devices
    • • Device capable of running iOS 7
    • • Device capable of running Android 4

Minimum connection speed:

  • A broadband connection is required for MP4 learning activities.

Questions or Comments

Please contact support@transfusionsafetyonline.com.