Just Give O Neg

 I've been told that medical students get about an hour of Immunohematology/Blood Bank/Transfusion Medicine training during their entirety of medical school. With how many unique situations in which a patient may need a transfusion of many different product types, this seems almost criminal. 

"Blood will be delayed on this patient. They have multiple antibodies so we need to finish the workup and then find blood for them"

"Well, his hemoglobin is 4. We need this blood yesterday, can't you just give O negative, what's the big deal?"

Actual conversation I've had. Given that one of the antibodies is an Anti-c. No, no I cannot just give O neg as it's likely c positive. 

I'd be glad to help set up some blood bank education modules for clinical staff. I firmly believe that doctors and nurses should rotate through the laboratory to get a better understanding of what we do, why we ask for the things we ask for, why we reject things the way we do, etc. I'd be more than happy to rotate, or do education modules on the clinical side of things as well. Show me the process of putting a patient on ECMO, show me how you use the Belmont rapid infuser, etc. We're all in this to learn and provide.