National Clinical and Donor Research Manager
Donor Behaviour Research Group Donor Health and Wellbeing Research Group
Senior Research Fellow
Donor Behaviour Research Group Donor Health and Wellbeing Research Group
Research Program Co-ordinator
Donor Behaviour Research Group Donor Health and Wellbeing Research Group
Research Fellow
Donor Health and Wellbeing Research Group Expert Professional Support
Do you feel anxious before your donation? Proud afterwards? How you feel before, during and after your blood donation may affect whether you want to come back again. Through this study, we will gain a better understanding of how our donors feel throughout the process of their blood donation and how we can support their emotional wellbeing.
For a number of reasons related to patient safety, we need more male donors than female, yet women are more inclined to become donors. Young men don't respond well to traditional recruitment methods, so this project will develop and test novel strategies to recruit more to our donor panel.
Lifeblood is experiencing an increase in demand for plasma and plasma products, and therefore needs to increase the number of plasma donors. This project will develop and test written materials to provide the right amount of information about plasma donation to increase awareness among new blood donors.
Some people donate blood regularly, and then stop suddenly for all sorts of reasons (such as moving or having children). Previous studies at Lifeblood have shown that it’s easier to motivate these donors to start donating again than to recruit new donors. The study will particularly focus on three groups: donors who have experienced a temporary postponement, O negative donors and plasma donors. Researchers will interview lapsed donors and staff to help us understand why people stop donating blood, and how we can encourage them to return.
In Australia, around a third of first-time blood donors never return. Why do they decide not to come back? This project tests an online psychological intervention designed to encourage new donors to make a second donation. The intervention was developed by Professor Christopher France at the University of Ohio. It will be trialled with Australian O negative donors: a critical group who can donate blood to patients of any blood type.
