This is Sarah with RegisteredNurseAurian.com and in this video I'm going to be going over blood typing. specifically the ABO blood groups and Rh factor. And as always at the end of this YouTube video you can access the free quiz that will test you on blood typing. So let's get started.
In nursing we transfuse blood. So before we do that we have to take some steps before we can actually transfuse a patient with a pack of red blood cells. We have to type and cross match them.
So we draw their blood, send it to the lab. The lab determines what blood type the patient is. Are they A? Are they B? Are they AB or O?
Also, what's their Rh factor? Is it positive or negative? Then they will cross match that with a potential donor to look and see what type of blood type our patient can receive and it be compatible. Because if they don't receive blood that they're compatible with, they can die.
They can have a transfusion reaction. And in the next video, I'm going to be going over the nurse's role with blood transfusion. So be sure to check out that video.
So let's talk about... blood what is blood blood is that red substance inside of our veins and it's really interesting because inside of it there are special cells that help us survive okay so in our blood we have plasma and suspended in that plasma we have white blood cells that fight infection platelets which help us clot and red blood cells which helps us do a variety of things like transport oxygen throughout our body and help remove that carb carbon dioxide so we can be so we can exhale it through our lungs. So of course here we're concentrating on red blood cells. Now everyone has a unique blood type whenever we're talking about the ABO blood typing. There are eight different blood types and they come from the four blood groups and of course like I said you can have A blood, B blood, AB or O and the eight comes from where you can be A positive or A negative, B positive, B negative.
and so forth. And that's again determined by the Rh factor. Now whenever we're looking at blood types and we're trying to determine, okay, what's our patient compatible with?
Say they have A. What kind of blood can they receive? We have to understand the concepts between antigens and antibodies because if we can understand that, then it's so easy to determine what a person can receive with a certain blood type. So let's look at these two. Okay, so what are antigens?
Antigens are proteins that are... found on the surface of a red blood cell. And depending on what type of blood you have will depend on what type of antigen you have on your red blood cell.
But patients who have type O, they have no antigens on their surface, which is why type O can be the universal donor. They can donate to everyone because they have no antigens present on their red blood cell. So keep that in mind. Now if we have type A, what kind of antigens do you think they're going to have?
have on the red blood cell. They're going to have A. And here in a moment we're going to go through all the blood types and you can see their antigens. Now let's talk about antibodies. Okay antibodies they protect our body from invaders and whenever we're talking about antibodies in this we're talking about what's found in the plasma surrounding the red blood cell.
And the antibodies are always going to be the opposite of what type of antigen is found on the red blood cell. So if we have type A blood here that have A antigens. What type of antibodies do you think they're going to have floating around in the plasma?
They're going to have type B because we don't want the same antigen and antibody getting together because if that happens our red blood cell will die. It will become a tap. So they have the opposite. Now let's talk about a situation where a patient receives like the wrong type of blood and you get this antigen antibody reaction. Okay so we have a We have type A blood over here.
This is our patient. So they have A antigens and they have B antibodies in their plasma. So let's say we have a donor and we give them type B blood.
Okay, what type of antigen is on the B donor's blood? B antigens. Okay, so we're going to transfuse them to the A. Well, once those red blood cells with the B antigens enter into that patient's blood because they have B antibodies.
floating around, these B antibodies are going to go up here because they match up and they're going to attack that red blood cell that this patient just received. And it's going to cause a process called agglutination and this is where those red blood cells are going to clump together and you're gonna have lysis of them and it's going to start a transfusion reaction which can lead to death. So before we go any further let's look at each individual blood type and look at the antigens and their antibodies. Okay, we'll start with type A.
We just went over this. Type A has the A antigen and in the plasma they have the B antibodies. Okay, type B they have B antigens on their red blood cell surface and surrounding the plasma they have A antibodies in them.
Okay, type AB would have both A and B antigens on the surface. of the red blood cell, but they have no antibodies in their plasma. So that will make the AB type the universal recipient because they can receive all these other blood types because they don't have those antibodies in their plasma to attack those red blood cells. In type O, like I said, they have no antigens on their surface. However, they have both A and B antibodies in their plasma.
So type O can donate to everyone because they have no antigens, but they can only receive blood from other type O's because they have both that A and B antibody present in their blood. Now let's dissect each blood group and see who can donate and who can receive from who. So let's start out talking about people who have type A blood.
Okay, people who have type A blood, what type of antigen did they have on their surface? They had A. In their plasma, what type of antibodies did they have floating around?
B. Remember, it's always the opposite. So first let's talk about recipient. Who can people with type A receive blood from? Well we know they can receive blood from people like themselves, so that's one off the bat.
So they can receive from other type A's. Okay, who is a candidate? We need to look for someone who doesn't match. our antibodies.
They have B antibodies. So we don't need someone who has a red blood cell surface antigen with a B because when they get together, they will attack. So B is completely out. They have B antigens.
A B's out. They have B antigens as well. O.
O's good because O has nothing. That's why we call O the universal donor. So O. Now let's see who type A can donate to. Of course, a person with type A can donate to other type A's and whenever we're looking at the other types we're going to have to pay attention to the antigen on the surface of the red blood cell.
Okay so type A's they have A antigens so we don't want to give take their blood and give it to someone who has A antibodies in their plasma. So B it's out they have A antibodies in their plasma. A B's not because they don't have any antibodies.
in their plasma. So AB is definitely someone they can give blood to. Can they give it to a person with O? No, O's out because they have both A and B antibodies in their blood.
Now let's look at people with type B blood. What was on their surface again? B antigens. What was surrounding their plasma?
The antibodies. We had A antibodies because it's always the opposite. So who can they receive blood from?
Other B's. And we are looking for a person who doesn't have A antigens on their surface because they have A antibodies in their blood. So could they receive A blood? No.
There's an A antigen on that red blood cell surface. Can they receive AB blood? No. There's A antigens on that surface.
Can they receive O? Yes. O has no antigens on it. that's on their surface so B and O is who they can receive from now who can they donate to of course they can donate to other B's and what we're paying attention to is because B has B antigens we need to give it give their blood to someone who doesn't have B antibodies so can't give it to a can we give it to a B absolutely they have no antibodies in their plasma.
So AB. Can we give them give it to O? No. O has both A and B antibodies in their plasma.
So they're not a candidate. Now let's look at patients with type AB blood. Okay on their red blood cell surface what type of antigen did they have?
They had A antigens and B antigens. But they're unique. They have no antibodies in their plasma.
So recipient. What are What did we say about A.B. at the beginning of the lecture?
They're the universal recipient because they have no antibodies in here. So it doesn't matter what type of surface antigen that are on these red blood cells. There's no antibodies in there to attack.
So they can receive from everyone, including themselves. So we're going to say recipient of all. Now donate.
Donate's a little bit of a different story with the AB types because they have both surface antigens of A and B and O they have A and B antibodies so they can't donate to O. They can't donate to B because B has A antibodies and they can't donate to A because they have B antibodies. So they can only donate to other ABs.
Now let's look at patients with type O blood. They had no antigens on their surface which makes them the universal donor but in their plasma the antibodies they had both A and B. So that puts them in a little bit of a dilemma being especially the recipient because can they receive any blood from anyone? No, because they have both A and B antibodies and all these either have A antigens or B antigens so they can only donate and be a recipient of themselves.
Now they're O's. Donate wise they're good. They can donate to everyone because they have no antigens on their surface that's going to cause an immune response in these other types.
So they donate to everyone, all. Now let's look at Rh factor. Okay, this is another thing that we have to take in consideration before we transfuse a patient. So you have to match their blood type, but you also have to see if they have these Rh factors present on the surface of the red blood cell. And if these factors are present on the red blood cell, that means that they are Rh positive.
If they're not present, that means that they're Rh negative. So let's look at each blood group. So you can have A positive, and right here we have the Rh factors present on the surface. So this is A positive.
Here we have a type blood cell that's A, has the A antigens, but it does not have the Rh factor. So it's A negative. And then B, the Rh factors are present.
So they're B positive. Here they are not, so they're B negative. And again, it's the same over here.
AB positive because they have the Rh factors present. They don't here, so they're AB negative. O, remember they have no surface antigens at all, but if they have the Rh factor present, they'll be O positive.
If they don't have it present, they'll be O negative. So what's the deal? Okay, if a person has a positive Rh factor, they can receive both positive and negative blood.
However, if they are Rh negative, they can only receive other Rh negative blood. So let's do a quiz. Okay, so let's say our patient needs two units of packed red blood cells, and we know our patient's type and they are A positive. What type of blood can they receive?
Okay. so you need to be thinking okay their rh factor is positive and what did we say that they can receive they can receive both positive and negative blood so they're candidates for that now we have to think back to what we just went over what type of blood can a's receive well we know they can receive from other a's okay so they can receive a's now what options are you going to select on the test you're going to select a positive and a negative so don't forget that so they can receive blood from an a positive and an A negative. Now what else can they receive? Well remember the people with type A blood that have A antigens on their surface, what was in their plasma?
B antibodies. So we don't want to give them blood with someone who's going to have a surface antigen on the red blood cell that's a B because it'll cause a reaction. So B is not a candidate. AB is not a candidate because it has both A and B antigens but O sure is a candidate because they have no antigens on their surface. So they can receive O.
They can also receive O positive and O negative. So those would be our answers. Now let's flip it around and let's say our patient was A negative instead of A positive. What could they receive now?
Because that changes things a little bit because if they're negative Rh factor, they can only receive other Rh negative factor blood. So they could only receive O positive. So they could only receive O negative.
So they could receive A negative and O negative. They couldn't receive O positive or A positive. Okay, so that wraps up this video on blood typing.
Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to take the free quiz and to subscribe to our channel for more videos.