A consultant with responsibility for blood and component donors, in consultation with nursing and operational managers, should ensure that there are adequate staffing levels and that staff are properly trained. This consultant may delegate day-to-day clinical responsibility to appropriately trained clinical staff.
The consultant, in consultation with the nurse manager, must ensure that there is an appropriate staffing level and skill mix to ensure donor safety and adequate monitoring of the equipment in use. They must ensure that, as a minimum requirement, all healthcare professionals involved with component donation receive annual basic life-support training.
At sessions where component collection is performed one or more suitably trained healthcare professionals must be responsible for the selection of the collection procedure, supervising the performance of venepunctures and for the ongoing supervision of machine procedures. Planned staffing levels should ensure that normally there is at least one member of suitably trained staff present for every two machines in use. A programme should be established for initial and continued training to ensure an appropriate level of proficiency.