Northern Medical program student Crystal McLeod is seeking survey participants for a study about the loss of blood donation services in Prince George and the surrounding area.
McLeod is looking for participants for the 20-minute survey who used to be blood donors or are a concerned community member that has an opinion about the impact of the lack of blood donations services in Northern BC.
The study is called Understanding the Loss of Blood Donation Services: Perception and Meaning in Northern BC.
Centre for Rural Health Research at UBC is taking the lead on this with McLeod as the co-investigator.
When the study is complete a report will be created and shared with health care providers, policy makers and service planners to better understand the issue and the impact the lack of blood donations has on rural communities.
“I was a longtime blood donor born and raised in Ontario and when I got to the Northern Medical program and moved here and then went to donate blood I realized there’s nowhere to donate,” McLeod explained her inspiration behind her involvement in the study.
McLeod got a grant from the University of BC in the summer to do a discourse analysis, she added.
“I did the research on rural and remote blood donation services in Canada and the results from that I presented at a conference last fall and the results from that told me that Prince George is not alone, the Canadian Blood Services pulled their donations services cross country in a lot of little towns and smaller communities,” McLeod said. “Donating blood is a point of pride for people.”
The next step for McLeod is to conduct a survey for community members and then ask those who have donated blood in Prince George before the donation services were closed to sit for an interview for research purposes.
For more information and to do the survey visit Understanding the loss of blood donation services.
