Donor Recruitment Team with 283 Years of Experience, Combats COVID

Photo By Sarah Lopez | The Armed Services Blood Program (ASBP) donor recruitment team came together from around the globe to attend the Association of Donor Recruitment Professionals (ADRP) annual conference in Indianapolis in May of 2019, to hone their skills as donor recruitment professionals.  

BETHESDA, MD, UNITED STATES

11.10.2021

Story by Donna Onwona 

Defense Health Agency

With experience comes results and the Armed Services Blood Program (ASBP) Donor Recruitment Team, with more than 280 years of combined experience, is bringing in results. Within the 21-member team, spread throughout the Military Healthcare System global enterprise, they hold an average tenure of 14 years as a blood donor recruiter. Over the last year and a half, their experience has proved to be incredibly valuable, in continuing to recruit donors and collect blood, despite ongoing pandemic challenges.

Erin Longacre, one of those team members, is an ASBP donor recruiter at Kendrick Memorial Blood Center at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medical Center, Fort Gordon, Ga.

“I began my career as a donor recruiter in October 2001, just when new rules were implemented for donors who’d served in or visited Europe,” she said. “It drastically reduced the available donor population in the military community.

“I’d just interviewed for the job, a few days before 9/11. Of course, afterward, the need for blood increased dramatically, as we began deploying troops in support of the Global War on Terror,” she said. “The timing was difficult … just as we needed more blood, we had fewer eligible donors.”

Although her career started during an especially difficult time, Longacre persevered.

“What has kept me in the field for this long is a sense of service,” she said. “I don’t get to directly see the results of what we do in the donor center or get to meet the patients who receive the blood we provide, but I know they are out there. I know our medics in the field and medical personnel in our hospitals can’t do their jobs to save lives, if there’s no blood products on the shelf.”

Many ASBP recruiters have stated, including Longacre, the part of the job they particularly like best is donor recruitment encompasses so many different challenges and no two days are ever the same. Some days could include making calls at their desk and working on the computer. Other days, they are speaking in front of groups within the military community or talking directly with donors at a blood drive.

When the pandemic hit in the Spring of 2020, COVID-19 turned everything upside down and, for donor recruiters, an already difficult job, became even more so. Trying to find creative solutions for collecting blood during lockdowns, telework, restrictions of movement and restrictions on operations called into service every resource and skill they had developed over the years, and then some.

“This has definitely been the most difficult challenge I have faced in my 19 years as a recruiter,” said Longacre.

The pandemic has changed many aspects across the ASBP, including social distancing requirements during drives; the number of regular and prospective donors available while teleworking or in quarantine. In addition, there’s an increased demand for convalescent plasma to treat Service members, family members and retirees diagnosed with COVID-19.

Army Col. Audra Taylor, ASBP division chief, understands the vital role blood donor recruiters play in making mission. “Their ability to get donors in the door is vital to the ASBP support of the DoD blood needs, in garrison and contingency facilities. Our recruitment team has managed to continue bringing in the blood, despite the adversity it has faced in the last year. We sincerely thank them for their dedication, determination and incredible depth of experience.”

Marty Ricker, recently retired and former ASBP donor recruitment branch chief, said, “The recruiters are a key element in accomplishing the ASBP’s collection mission. Without their expertise and continuous effort, we would not be collecting half of the blood we are.

“Although ASBP donor recruiters are located at military bases throughout the U.S. and in overseas locations, like Okinawa, Landstuhl and Guam, the tight-knit team draws from their teammates’ experience, regardless of time zone, to overcome obstacles and maximize blood collections,” Ricker said. “This supports our warfighters in-theater and patients at military treatment facilities around the world.”

Before the pandemic, many donor recruiters would have said they’d ‘seen everything’ when it came to blood donor recruiting. However, recruiting donors within a pandemic proved that wrong. Though their resiliency has been tested throughout the past year, the ASBP recruiter team has kept the ‘donations flowing’. Thanks to the depth of experience donor recruiters brings, they fully and completely support the ASBP mission. When blood is needed for warfighters and their families, this team’s goal is to always make sure it’s there.

• Date Taken: 11.10.2021
• Date Posted: 11.15.2021 07:46
• Story ID: 409110
• Location: BETHESDA, MD, US