THe American red cross
Welcome to my senior capstone project with the american red cross!
Greetings! My name is Anthony, and you've found yourself on my page for my Senior capstone project for Portland State University! I'm currently a Junior with the online Bachelor's of Social Work program, and I am very excited to be able to utilize my service work with the Red Cross to help me to learn to be a better agent for positive change, not only in my community, but for society at large!
What THe AMERICAN RED CROSS does
The American Red Cross exists to help safeguard health and wellbeing across the country. Every day, thousands of volunteers turn out to assist in it's mission to provide life saving blood and associated products, and to provide comfort and assistance to those facing disasters.
In addition, the American Red Cross has committed to programs designed to prepare and prevent the occurrence of disasters through fire safety and prevention programs and First aid, CPR, and Emergency response classes.
In addition, the American Red Cross has committed to programs designed to prepare and prevent the occurrence of disasters through fire safety and prevention programs and First aid, CPR, and Emergency response classes.
The Fundamental principles of the red cross
Humanity
The Red Cross, born of a desire to bring assistance without discrimination to the wounded on the battlefield, endeavors—in its international and national capacity—to prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found. Its purpose is to protect life and health and to ensure respect for the human being. It promotes mutual understanding, friendship, cooperation and lasting peace amongst all peoples.
Impartiality
It makes no discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions. It endeavors to relieve the suffering of individuals, being guided solely by their needs, and to give priority to the most urgent cases of distress.
Neutrality
In order to continue to enjoy the confidence of all, the Red Cross may not take sides in hostilities or engage at any time in controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature.
Independence
The Red Cross is independent. The national societies, while auxiliaries in the humanitarian services of their governments and subject to the laws of their respective countries, must always maintain their autonomy so that they may be able at all times to act in accordance with Red Cross principles.
Voluntary Service
The Red Cross is a voluntary relief movement not prompted in any manner by desire for gain.
Unity
There can be only one Red Cross society in any one country. It must be open to all. It must carry on its humanitarian work throughout its territory.
Universality
The Red Cross is a worldwide institution in which all societies have equal status and share equal responsibilities and duties in helping each other.
The Red Cross, born of a desire to bring assistance without discrimination to the wounded on the battlefield, endeavors—in its international and national capacity—to prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found. Its purpose is to protect life and health and to ensure respect for the human being. It promotes mutual understanding, friendship, cooperation and lasting peace amongst all peoples.
Impartiality
It makes no discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions. It endeavors to relieve the suffering of individuals, being guided solely by their needs, and to give priority to the most urgent cases of distress.
Neutrality
In order to continue to enjoy the confidence of all, the Red Cross may not take sides in hostilities or engage at any time in controversies of a political, racial, religious or ideological nature.
Independence
The Red Cross is independent. The national societies, while auxiliaries in the humanitarian services of their governments and subject to the laws of their respective countries, must always maintain their autonomy so that they may be able at all times to act in accordance with Red Cross principles.
Voluntary Service
The Red Cross is a voluntary relief movement not prompted in any manner by desire for gain.
Unity
There can be only one Red Cross society in any one country. It must be open to all. It must carry on its humanitarian work throughout its territory.
Universality
The Red Cross is a worldwide institution in which all societies have equal status and share equal responsibilities and duties in helping each other.
A Brief history of the american red cross
The American Red Cross was founded by Clara Burton and her associates in the Wake of the Civil War after seeing the efforts of the International Red Cross during her travels through Europe. It was originally founded in 1881 and focused on providing first aid and nursing classes and advocating for clean water.
The Organization experienced an incredible surge in growth following the end of World War I, and grew from 107 chapters in 1914 to 3864 in 1918. During the teens, '20s and '30s, the American Red Cross assisted in efforts to fight such varied crises as the Spanish Flu Epidemic in 1918, the deadly Mississippi River floods in the late 20's and the devastating economic crash of the 30s.
A Major change to the focus of the American Red Cross came during the 1940s when, during World War II, the US Army requested the Red Cross to organize a blood donation program to assist the military to provide live saving transfusions to servicemen during the war. Over the course of the war the program provided 13.3 million units of blood for the armed forced, and following the war, was converted into a civilian medical program that now provides over 40% of all blood products used in the US.
In the early 2000's, the American Red Cross returned to its roots of disaster prevention and response, and partnered with FEMA on disaster relief, fire safety, and fire prevention programs.
My Role with the american red cross
Blood Drive Ambassador
As a Blood Drive Ambassador, it is your job to efficiently run the front end of the blood drive. The process starts with greeting prospective donors and screening them for safety prior to admitting them into the drive. We scan the temperatures of all entering guests to help ensure the integrity of the space. Once we've completed an initial assessment of covid symptoms, we then register the guest for their donation, determine the appropriate type of donation, and assist the client in filling out their health survey.
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Once the guest is done with their questionnaire and is working with our Phlebotomists for the donation, our focus shifts to engaging with them to help alleviate any anxiety they may have about their donation and to help to make sure we recognize any adverse reactions guests may be experiencing. Our medical staff is well trained to respond to these reactions, and we make sure everything goes smoothly for the guest.
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Once the guest has completed their donation, we seat them in our recovery area, affectionately dubbed the "canteen", and provide them with some snacks and drinks to help them recover and to make sure they are safe to go out and about the rest of their day. Once they're ready to go, we thank them for their generous donation and encourage them to make another appointment to come back when they are available to donate again.
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Transportation specialist
The American Red Cross holds blood drives all over the country and in rural communities every day. How does that blood get to where it's most needed? Enter the Transportation Specialists. Our job is to pickup the blood from these scattered drives and get it to our facilities in a timely fashion so that they can be processed for use. In my time as a Transport Specialist, I've done pickups in John Day, Burns and Klamath Falls and delivered to the Bend facility.
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Blood donations aren't just used in the communities in which they are given. When blood is needed elsewhere, it is often transported on the same airlines that we use to travel across the country. Receiving the blood from the airlines and transporting it to hospitals in need as well as getting it to the airlines to fly out is another of the transport specialist's job responsibilities. This duty has allowed me access to areas of our local hospital and airport that are inaccessible to the general public!
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my reflections on my time with the american red cross
My time with the American Red Cross has been simply amazing. The organization is arguably one of the largest in the country, so you might think that it would feel more like a company than an agency, and yet, the people I have had the privilege of working with have been some of the warmed, most welcoming people I could have asked for.
I really enjoyed working as a blood ambassador to be the local face of the organization helping to encourage the public to continue their generosity in helping to save others, and to empathize with them over their anxieties and talk them through what was, at times, a frightening time.
Working behind the scenes as a transport specialist also brought many exciting and amazing experiences, and I'll always remember leaving John Day one evening to head back to the facility and watching a herd of elk migrate across the highway bracketed by the forest of trees on either side of the road and the moon and stars overhead.
The work we do helps save lives, and being able to stand next to these passionate people has only strengthened my desire to continue working to help make positive changes in my world.
I really enjoyed working as a blood ambassador to be the local face of the organization helping to encourage the public to continue their generosity in helping to save others, and to empathize with them over their anxieties and talk them through what was, at times, a frightening time.
Working behind the scenes as a transport specialist also brought many exciting and amazing experiences, and I'll always remember leaving John Day one evening to head back to the facility and watching a herd of elk migrate across the highway bracketed by the forest of trees on either side of the road and the moon and stars overhead.
The work we do helps save lives, and being able to stand next to these passionate people has only strengthened my desire to continue working to help make positive changes in my world.