Medsurg nursing : official journal of the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses
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Types of blood products commonly transfused by medical-surgical nurses include packed red blood cells, fresh frozen plasma, and platelets. This review of ABO and Rh blood types and leukocyte-reduced blood products serves as a basis for understanding the nursing procedures and assessments that are a vital part of a safe and successful transfusion. The concept of the seroconversion window is described and related to the latest donor blood testing procedures such as nucleic acid amplification, which has markedly reduced the time between the initial contracting of viral illnesses such as HIV and hepatitis C and the point at which they may be detected in donor blood.