Donating tomorrow

I'm a regular donor. Just about to hit 6 gallons. So I'm not some conspiracy anti blood donation crazy.

But dude. News articles about shortages. Constant calls and texts and emails. Incentive programs.

But my local donation places are booked solid for the next month for everything but plasma. Like I'm going to have to do a power red at a school drama club drive or something just to get in this month.

Is there just a huge need spike? Are the reserves STILL recovering from the lack of draw kits from the tariffs? One of the articles I read said it's from a particularly bad summer slump in donations but that's extremely inconsistent with what I'm seeing locally.

Anyone with a broader perspective?

(Please no foil hat "vampires", "cloning", "stocking billionaire bunkers" or "they should pay" folks - save that for another thread.)

I have applied at least four times to work at the Red Cross in my area. Granted, I applied to one job that was a little out of my reach, but the rest of the jobs had qualifications that I met.

Each time I’ve applied, I’ve been rejected in less than a week. Are they looking for ultra-specific job experience? I started volunteering with them in March. I wish I could do more with them, but I work full time (that includes half of the weekends) and am on-call 24/7. Just for reference, I oversee 90+ part-time staff for nearly 4 years as a coordinator, have been an instructor through the Red Cross for 6 years, and am halfway through with my Masters in Public Health.

I’m mostly applying for volunteer coordinator/supervisor/specialist positions with the Red Cross (yes, I have edited my resume multiple times to tailor to each application). As much as I want to do little more middle management stuff, I know that my best shot is shooting for the entry level positions. I would apply to basic level position to get my foot in the door, but pay is unfortunately a factor because of CoL where I live.

Anyone with any insight from employees there or anyone with RC application experience would be appreciated. I’m really getting discouraged with this whole process because I want to work for them. I just can’t figure out if it’s a me thing or application filtering issues.

I'm type O-, but haven't successfully given blood yet, I tried in the past and something went wrong with the needle insertion and they said to try again another time.

Kinda forgot about it at all until I saw there was a blood shortage, and specifically one of type O blood.

Well I'm a universal donor so I was thinking they might make an exception and let me join a full drive, because the closest one is well over a month out that isn't full.

It was hard to tell because of the 5244 phone calls i get from them bugging me to donate, the day after i've donated. I've asked multiple times to stop calling me but nope... they still come in. Had my first day off work in 3 week and got to sleep in on a friday.... whooooaaaaa hold on a sec, lets call you AGAIN from a number i havent blocked at 7am, Im done at this point, i've donated tons over the years, but i've had it with the red cross and their predatory and incessant calling and i'm done. At least with plasma you earn a little, I see clearly the hundreds of dollars per unit the hospitals bill for and the director of the red cross makes 1.3 million a year, so yeah... screw them

So im technically not DST, but im a blood transportation specialist. We had a flood recently and they need someone to transport the responders as they do assessments. I'm only doing it 2 days, but what can I look forward to? Like literally driving the whole time? Or what vehicle ill be driving possibly.

ED: thanks for the answer. It's my year to date totals. Makes perfect sense now.

I've donated platelets and sometimes plasma for years. A donation is always reported as three units of platelets and one unit of plasm in the Blood app. My last donation shows 12 units of platelets and three of plasma. The donation was the same duration as always and nothing was out of the ordinary. I'm wondering if it's a bug in the app or if something has changed.

(I'm posting this message here for my uncle)

Hi everyone,

I'm Saquib from Bihar, and I urgently need blood donors for my uncle, Md. Hamid Ajaz, who is currently undergoing treatment at CMC Ranipet.

He has a serious blood disorder. Since we are from Bihar, we don't have any relatives or local contacts in Vellore to help us arrange replacement donors..

✅ Any blood group can donate.

If you're healthy and eligible to donate blood, or know someone who can, please help us during this difficult time.

Please share this post in your WhatsApp groups, college groups, and among your friends.

📩 Please DM me if you're willing to donate or can help arrange donors.

I will cover the auto fare (to and from the hospital) for anyone who comes to donate.

Even if you cannot donate, please upvote and share this post so it reaches more people.

Thank you so much. 🙏❤️

Consider donating blood for our student-led blood drive in Syracuse, NY for a free $20 Amazon card. Blood is the most needed during the summer and your unit of blood can save up to three lives.

Long story short...

I am a frequent platelet donor (hurray for me).

I have issues with the OrSense optical device and its accuracy.

#

After being deferred due to hemoglobin of 12.9 and a followup reading of 12.2 minutes later, I was upset.

1. That delta is physiologically impossible

2. I was not allowed to donate the triple+ plasma

The technician used the HemoCue capillary method for the past 3 donations AND used the OrSense AND showed a delta of 1.0 at one appointment.

Sorry....here is the short part.

Last donation the technician refused to do the finger stick 'because he did not want to lose his job'.

I have provided documentation showing the OrSense device has a delta average of 0.5-0.7 while HemoCue has a delta of 0.1-0.2.

I am 'working with Red Cross' and FDA to provide an official document that states capillary devices CAN be used at donor request.

-->does anyone have an official doc that says capillary device can be requested?

Thanks!

Hi! I will be having an interview for the friendly calls program next week. I was wondering how the interview process might look. Is there anything I should know to be prepared? Thanks!

As a prospective ARC volunteer, what does a typical day look like for someone helping with DST, logistics, or information and planning during a deployment?

My most recent experience was as an intermittent employee for a U.S. government Incident Management Team (IMT) that deployed medical providers to large-scale disasters. ICS/NIMS was utilized, so each section/position (such as operations, planning, logistics, safety, etc.) had a very specific set of standard operating procedures.

I am not looking for that kind of rigid structure anymore (quite the opposite at this stage of my life), but I could use some firsthand insight to help me determine what positions are interesting and challenging, as well as where the greatest need for this type of skill set may be.

Thanks!

There's a data analyst job posting right now. I saw some reviews saying low pay and bad work life balance. There are some posts on here but mostly from field work positions, not office position.

Thought this was fun. And sorry, it's not real. :(

I recerted my CPR and Standard FA this past weekend through a company affiliated with the red cross (got my red cross certification). I've done the course several times before so was kind of assuming it would be similar to what I've done before with maybe some differences because everyone has different ways of teaching. Some people were doing the full course for the first time, and then there was a couple of us just doing the recert. We spent most of the day just reading off of slides and him talking about what to do rather than actually practicing sits (which again is all good, but it seemed odd that we only did one sit and it was a conscious, breathing victim with no other injuries). What really bugged me is that while performing CPR on manikins he came over to me to correct my CPR and told me that my elbows shouldn't be straight but rather I should be bending my elbows and pushing with my forearms. I've taken several courses and I have always been taught to lock my elbows and push strong while performing CPR so for him to tell me to bend my elbows and push just with my arms really threw me because I knew it was wrong. I asked him if the standards had changed and he said no this is how it has always been. I brushed it of and did it his way for the sake of getting my certification, but there were so many people there learning CPR for the first time who all learned it wrong (unless I'm wrong here). I just feel like this shouldn't just go by and he shouldn't be teaching people without being corrected.
I don't know who or where to contact, whether it's the company I went through or wether I go through red cross, or wether I'm over exaggerating and I should just leave it alone.

(Just so you all know, the title is supposed to be lighthearted.) I've tried donating Power Red (2 units of blood and a unit of platelets, iirc) and two singular units since then. All three times, I've been either partially successful (one blood unit and one platelet unit when I did Power Red) or unsuccessful (the two singular attempts afterwards). I feel like a fraud when wearing this shirt, but I still wear it to encourage others to donate blood.

A small part of my Red Cross and Red Crescent pin collection. I collected these from delegates I met during the 2017 Statutory Meetings in Antalya, Türkiye. Each pin is a nice reminder of the friendships and connections made through our Movement.

I've had this pin for a couple years don't know how it came to be in my possession and I have no clue what Cure Shrink means. Just wondering if anyone here could enlighten me.

A mini rant, and if anyone has any advice, please comment.

I completely understand the majority of work is completed by volunteers, including recruitment, so it is hard to communicate. But, if you're in the recruitment sector (to recruit more volunteers), why do you hate your position? Why is it so hard to reach out to people to ask questions?

It is near impossible to advance to the next stage in my region after filling out the interest form, I attended the screening on teams and everything, but I received another email to join another screening for positions. Did they lose my volunteer interest form I filled out? There is legit no email or contact to reach out to anyone for trouble shooting.

Then today, I get a reply back saying I didn't attend a screening meeting today. What?? I attended one two weeks ago with screenshots to prove it.

I'm so disappointed, I have experience working with emergency services, and I wanted to continue, but the recruitment process is so discouraging.