Canadian Blood Services is Canada’s Biological Lifeline. They are the connection between the sincere generosity of donors and the heartfelt appreciation of recipients and between the profound discoveries of science and the joyful restoration of health. As such, they are nationally responsible for a secure system of life essentials – blood, plasma, stem cells and organs and tissues – for transfusion and transplantation.
Jennifer Tackley, Manager of Field Logistics, and Patricia Burke, CDS, Coordinator of Fleet Safety/Driver Training, work with their team of professional drivers and staff members to ensure that their day-to-day operations don’t skip a beat. Each day, the team receives a schedule for hospital deliveries and mobile donor events in their province.
For hospital deliveries, drivers are notified how many ‘units’ of donations are being delivered to which hospital. With every delivery, timing is everything and safety is paramount. Jennifer explains that when a driver is scheduled to deliver, they must leave at their scheduled time since they are handling such time-sensitive products for a time-sensitive circumstance – one that could make all the difference for someone’s life.
“Our drivers take a lot of pride knowing that there’s patients waiting for units and that every unit counts,” says Jennifer. “In order to help the hospital, we’re doing everything that we can – it’s taken very seriously, and our drivers really take it to heart.”
Then there’s the mobile side of things. Canadian Blood Services schedules mobile donor events in rural areas across the country, where staff and drivers assemble and operate on-site blood donation clinics. Jennifer explains that mobile donor events in
Manitoba are scheduled three times a week; meanwhile, in other parts of the country, multiple events are scheduled in one day. Canadian Blood Services has collection goals to support the needs of Canadians.
“Each trip consists of a truck, containing equipment; van, transporting the collections; and bus, containing staff, who come to operate the site and do the collections,” says Jennifer. “At any given time, we’ll have 14-18 people working a mobile donor event at one time. It’s fascinating to watch the whole set-up – it’s a well-oiled machine: everybody knows what they need to do, and they get it done.”
Patricia says that their team operates under the core principle, safety above all else, and with good reason: if the driver gets into an accident, everybody loses. The driver is at risk for injury, the product is at risk to be damaged, and the hospital is at risk to not have the life-saving products needed to nurture/save a life.
“Safety is paramount for our drivers, and they understand that,” says Patricia.
Meet Joe Thomas
Joe Thomas is a professional driver/trainer at Canadian Blood Services. Joe has been working for Canada’s Lifeline for four years now – delivering units to hospitals and working at mobile donor events across the province – and loves his job.
“Every day is a pleasure. There isn’t one day where I wake up and think, “Ugh, I need to go to work today.” says Joe. “It makes a huge difference when you go to work and know that what you’re doing matters and makes a difference.”
Joe’s stories at work and on the road hit close to home. For instance, he explains that Canadian Blood Services now collects/delivers units specifically for babies. “It’s a smaller unit [of blood], so when you see them, you know it’s for a baby. You see these tiny units and it pulls on your heartstrings,” says Joe.
“One day, I was in the lab and one of the staff was extracting plasma. I had never seen that done before, so I asked, “Do you mind if I watch?” She said, “Absolutely” and explained that it was for a baby that was being born the next day. It’s those parts of the job that you think, “Wow, I work in this place and they’re doing this for this baby, who is going to be born tomorrow. And because of what we do, this baby has a chance.”
Joe and his team in Winnipeg, MB, drive out to and operate mobile donor events in different parts of the province three days a week. Other days, Joe delivers units to hospitals and serves as an on-the-job trainer. He describes his team as being very committed and the way they operate is a direct reflection of their leadership.
“We all help each other and we all know that we’re in this together,” says Joe. “When we do the mobile donor events, I drive the truck and help set everything up, the staff arrive and collect blood all day, then we pack everything up and go home. And throughout the day, we’re working with the donors and that is an incredible experience.”
Joe and his team are the driving force behind Canada’s Lifeline. Their time and dedication is what connects you to me and every Canadian in between.
To learn more about Canadian Blood Services and how you can help make a difference, visit www.blood.ca.
