Strengthening quality management system: An assessment of awareness and knowledge in trainees in blood bank.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to assess the changes in knowledge concerning quality management system (QMS) among the participants before and after attending a QMS training.

METHODS: After obtaining the ethical approval, a retrospective study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of QMS. Fifty participants from district blood banks of three different states participated in the study organized at two different periods. After obtaining informed consent, the participants were subjected to set of questionnaire containing 45 questions (35 multiple choice and 10 subjective questions) as pretest on quality standards and were again subjected to posttest questionnaire containing the same set of questions after 5 days of workshop. Twenty minutes were granted to solve the questions. Each question was given one mark. There was no negative marking. An assessment of knowledge gained during training was evaluated by comparing the scores of pre- and post-assessment.

RESULTS: Of the total 50 delegates, 29 were trained in the month of July (Training I) and 21 were trained in the month of November (Training II). There were 96% ( n = 48) males and 4% ( n = 2) females. In both the training sessions, that is, Training I and II, the mean scores of objective questions in pretest were 13.629 ± 6.58 and 9.34 ± 5.74, and after the training, the posttest scores increased significantly to 17.77 ± 7.05 and 14.34 ± 7.09, respectively. Paired Student's t -test was applied which showed statistically significant increment in knowledge ( P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: There was a significant positive change in the knowledge of the participants after attending QMS workshop.