Knowledge, Attitude and Practice regarding voluntary blood donation among the bachelor level students of Chitwan, Nepal

Background and Objectives:  Blood transfusion is a core service within health care systems and individuals who donate their blood in the treatment of sick human for different conditions such as surgery, accident, delivery and treatment of different diseases. The donation of blood by voluntary non-remunerated blood donors is recognized as being crucial for the safety and sustainability of national blood supplies. The study is carried out to find out the prevalence of blood donors and to explore the knowledge, attitude and practice on voluntary blood donation of medical students.Material and Methods:  Data were collected from a semi-structured questionnaire and technique was  self-administered  questionnaire  to  know  the  level  of  knowledge,  attitude  and  practices  of blood donation and analyze by using SPSS software among 167 medical students of Shree Medical and  Technical  College,  Chitwan.  The scoring system in knowledge was included.  Attitude was assessed by using 3-point Likert scale. Results:  Majority of respondents (92.8%) had heard about voluntary blood donation and almost all (97.2%) respondents knew the correct meaning of voluntary blood donation. About 38.9% had poor  knowledge  regarding  voluntary  blood  donation  and  61.1%  of  the  respondents  had  good knowledge  on  voluntary  blood  donation  and  mean  knowledge  was  found   to  be  56.17%.  Those respondents who had work experience had significantly low level of knowledge than who did not have work experience (p = 0.0025).Conclusion: To increase the prevalence of voluntary blood donation, specific campaigns involving interactive  awareness  sessions  on  blood  donation  should  be  organized,  targeting  the  youth, motivating them to become regular voluntary blood donors should be conducted. Efforts must be undertaken  to  bring  the  knowledge  and  positive  attitude  towards  students  into  application  in future to achieve the goal of 100% VBD.