New Jersey Society of Blood Bank Professionals

A Message from the President of the New Jersey Society of Blood Bank Professionals

If one considers the somewhat antiquated term “blood bankers”, notes the disparate collection of professionals encompassed under one roof, and then ponders an attempt to organize the lot as a professional society, I doubt few would rally to the cause. Perhaps appropriate models would be societies encompassing the derrick hand, refiner, and gas station attendant, or, the milkmaid, food processor, and grocer. As much as the task resembles herding cats, in our case it works.

I suspect our origins as a professional entity and our unique place among society’s most important institutions enable us to view ourselves as a seamless, interdependent process flowing from donor to patient. The altruistic yearning of blood donors binds generations, social and ethnic groupings, and occupational distinctions in the larger community. It also binds recruiter, phlebotomist, technologist, and clinician into a society of professionals, each of whom adds unique skills to their stations along the journey.

We educate and persuade the fearful and unheeding, and remind corporations of their civic obligation.
We comfort and care for donors under our watch. We process and prepare products meeting the highest standards of purity, potency, and efficacy. We provide medical knowledge for healing and recovery. All of us in the NJSBBP represent a crucial building block of the blood bank institution. Each of us offers stewardship of a precious, life giving gift.

The NJSBBP is now five years old. We have come of age as a source of high quality education through our annual meeting and technical seminars. Our scholarship program energizes high school blood drives statewide and recognizes youth leadership for organizing the single largest source of blood in New Jersey. The society has become a respected source of experienced counsel and advocacy for sound blood banking policy and priorities. Through hard work and the generosity of time and efforts by many, great progress has been made. Much more remains.

As the incoming president of NJSBBP, I intend to expand membership to the many building blocks of our statewide system and will ask our leadership to establish work groups for donor services and community relations. Noting the 90,000 unit loss of donations over the past decade in New Jersey, these professionals need to revitalize our state efforts to reverse the tide and reestablish the security of self sufficiency.

Communications among all blood banking constituencies must be reestablished through a quarterly communication. I hope to find the means to develop a high quality, sustainable newsletter that informs all and establishes the society as a hub for interactive problem solving. Finally, the often dull and routine task of committing business functions and timelines to policy and procedure must take priority. We grew fast and successfully. Future officers of the society will thank us for eliminating the thrill of last minute discoveries.

Join, participate, learn, and help us grow. Stake out your rightful place in the NJSBBP. Everyone is a steward of the state’s most precious resource.

Sincerely,

Chuck
Grossenbacher

President

(2005-2006)