Always obtain and document consent from your patient.

Check your local institutional guidelines about informed consent.

Always cover the following when acquiring informed consent:

Explain

• Cause/likelihood of bleeding or the low blood count (including any uncertainty)

• Nature of the proposed transfusion therapy—what is involved

• Benefits expected

• Risks common and rare but serious

• Alternatives including the risk of doing nothing.

Ask

• Is there anything else you would like to know?

• Is there anything you do not understand?

Provide

• Interpreter for non-English speaking patients

• Written information.