EFFECTIVENESS OF STRUCTURED TEACHING PROGRAMME ON KNOWLEDGE REGARDING CORD BLOOD BANKING AMONG STAFF NURSES IN A SELECTED HOSPITAL AT KOLLAM

*Simi Chandra C. S. and Sr. Teena Kavungal

ABSTRACT

The medical community has long sought methods to replace cells irreparably damaged by disease or injury. In recent years, stem cell research has become an integral part of this quest. Stem cells differ from the rest of the body´s cells in two ways. First, they have the ability to proliferate (i.e. renew themselves over extended periods of time). Second, they are unspecialized, and have demonstrated that under some controlled conditions, they can be transformed into cells performing specialized functions via a process called differentiation. Embryonic stem cells – logically found within embryos – have demonstrated their ability to proliferate within a laboratory and remain undifferentiated, which adult stem cells have not been able to do.[1] As the clinical utility has become apparent, collection and banking of UCB have become more widespread all over the world. The expansion of UCB banking has led to the establishment of UCB quality standards by professional groups such as AABB (formerly known as American Association of Blood Banks) and the Foundation for Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT)/NETCORD. These best-practice expectations pertain to collection, testing, processing and banking of UCB for transplantation11. There are at least 142 public [three in India – Relicord (Reliance Life Science), (Jeevan Cord and Stemcyte) and 25 private (seven in India) UCB banks worldwide.[2]

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