For those of you who have never given blood, or have not done it recently, here's what happens - you check in with a nurse, they take you into a pseudo-private temporary thin-walled cube, poke your finger to test your blood for iron content, check your temperature (orally) and your blood pressure. Next you're asked a series of very personal questions regarding your health and personal habits then its off to the chair for the blood letting. At the end you get to pick your color of bandage, you get some free snacks, some give-away door prize and then get to feel righteous the rest of the day. That's it in a nutshell.
Well the process has advanced technologically in recent years. During check-in they can now scan your donor card so you don't have to fill out as much info. In recent years they had gone from asking you all the embarrassing questions in person (picture large, mean looking nurse asking, "have you ever had sex with someone of the same gender, even once?") to letting you fill out a paper questionnaire, etc. Now the questionnaire has gone electronic. You now sit at a computer station (with pseudo-privacy) and they ask you all those questions. But now they have pictures to help you understand!
For example:
- Have you ever used illicit narcotics? (Accompanied by picture of syringe, needle, powder cocaine and lots of pills)
- Have you spent more than 3 years in any European country? (Accompanied by high-level map of Europe on the globe)
- Have you ever had sex, even once, with a person of the same gender? (Accompanied by close 0f of two interlocked male hands.)
Gee, I'm sure glad that gave me these pictures. It really helps drive home the point. Heaven knows I wouldn't be able to know if I HAD: taken drugs, been to Europe or had gay sex if they hadn't had the pictures!
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