Give Blood - Recycle Life

Monday, June 2, 2014

This is an image of recycle. It's not a sign for recycling glass, paper, metal, or plastic, but it is a sign for recycling blood. If you look closer, you will find the sign is made of three arms with bandage on them instead of three arrows. The image shows how our arms are elastic and how our blood is recyclable.

Unknown Artist. Recycle Life. 2013. Web. May 18, 2014.

American Red Cross

American Red Cross has several organizations going on around the United States. Blood donation is one of the organizations that they created. The website "Give Blood" is just made for blood donations. Their website contains important information for people who have any questions about the blood donations, such as how to donate blood, why they should donate blood, or if they are qualified to donate blood? Red Cross also posted some facts on their website, such as "one pint of blood can save up to three lives, every two seconds someone needs a blood transfusion, or five million patients in the United States need blood every year, and less than 38 percent of the population is eligible to give blood."(Give Blood)

"Give Blood." Donate Blood. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2014. 01 June 2014.

How to Help

There are several ways you can help. The first, and most direct one, is donating blood yourself. The safest and easiest way to do so is going to the American Red Cross or one of their blood drives. If you go to their website, http://www.redcross.org/blood, you can enter your zip code and find the nearest blood drive.

There are several requirements you must fulfill in order to be able to donate blood which are:

Be in good overall health and feel well
Be at least 17 years old in most states (some exceptions apply depending on the state and parental consent)
Weigh at least 110 lbs.

These are the general requirements, but are not the only ones that exist. Several restrictions concerning diseases, vaccines, travel outside the U.S., and other things apply. A complete list of these can be found in the American Red Cross' website mentioned above.

If you are not eligible to donate, there are other ways you can help. The first, is that you can ask your friends and family if they could donate blood, if they are eligible. Another way you can help, is by volunteering at one of their blood drives. This way, you will be helping the cause and making a difference. To sign up for volunteering, go to this website: http://www.redcrossblood.org/volunteer. If you want to help out in a bigger scale, you can get in touch with the Red Cross and host your own blood drive! To host a blood drive, go to this website: http://www.redcrossblood.org/hosting-blood-drive.

You can make a difference! Donate Blood!

"Give Blood." Donate Blood. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2014. 1 June 2014

Sunday, June 1, 2014

The Journal of the American Medical Association

The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), published an article called Blood Donation. In this one-page article, Janet Torpy, the author, gives several facts about donating blood. The article starts with an explanation about what blood transfusion is. Torpy states that "someone needs blood on an average of every 2 seconds" (Torpy, 2350). She talks about who needs blood donations, which are people who have lost blood due to an injury or during a surgical procedure, or people with certain diseases. After this, Torpy talks about who can or cannot donate blood, due to some restrictions she mentions. For example, you can be temporarily deferred if you have recently visited certain countries, and you will get permanently deferred if you are HIV positive. She then proceeds to give some reasons as to why you should donate blood. This source is very credible, since it was published in a journal.

Glass, Richard, Lynm, Cassio, and Torpy, Janet. “Blood Donation.” The Journal of the American Medical Association 299.19 (2008): 2350. Web. May 15, 2014. <http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=181937>.

Survey

Our primary source for this campaign was the poll we created on social media. As you can see above, 62 people said yes to donate blood, and only 16 people said no. We were able to reach our primary audience easily and learn their thoughts about our campaign. We might have even made people spread out the awareness for us. We also know how big our campaign is going to be because we have an approximate number of people who would want to donate blood.

Yenen,Yunus. “Blood Donation”. Survey. Philadelphia:Drexel University, 20 May 2014. Web.