Hematology Department "Gives Back" through Blood Donation Challenges

Oct 30, 2017 | Katy Maeder | @katymaeder

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For the Hematology Department at Mayo Clinic, blood donation is not something new. Each year, the department tries to host three blood donation challenges. Each challenge group within the department has the same goal—seeing who can get more people to donate blood within a specified time frame. The department knows firsthand the importance of blood donation and how it can help to save a life.
"We do this, as a department, knowing that donating blood is one way for us to let our patients in need know that we care. These challenges are also a good way to keep things fun in our work units," says Amy Phelps, Challenge Leader.
The "friendly competition" started off with each team creating posters to promote the challenge. These posters helped to increase participation and create a fun competition to see who could make the "most liked" poster. The winning team of the poster competition took home a small gift and bragging rights.

In the end, the Myeloid Team came out with the most donations and was declared the winner. The Hematology Department's blood donation challenge could have touched up to 75 lives with its donations. The department had so much success with this challenge that it has decided to have another unit challenge starting in November.

Get Involved
If your organization or work unit is interested in hosting a Blood Donation Challenge, contact Blood Donor Recruitment Coordinators Kim Schmidt at (507) 266-2382, Jackie O'Reilly at (507) 284-9831, or Katy Maeder at (507) 284-9007.