SBB ASCP Specialist in Blood Banking: Certification, Eligibility, Study Guide, Material, Questions & Exam Prep

To achieve SBB (ASCP) blood banking specialist certification is a great opportunity to shine your life professionally and financially. It boosts your experience and makes you elite among your colleagues.

But getting ASCP certification is not child play. You have to put your all-out effort to make the achievement of this life-changing certification possible.

To eliminate your efforts to find information about ASCP specialists in blood banking certification, we are going to explore all aspects related to this certificate, including exam content area, eligibility requirements, BOC reading list, exam format, and much more.

SBB (ASCP), What does It Mean?

ASCP specialists in blood banking certification are for those candidates who can perform simple to complex tests in transfusion services and blood banking.

They use advanced techniques to determine the blood types, select blood components, and identify antibodies.

The ASCP (American Society for Clinical Pathology) BOC (Board of Certification) awards this certificate to blood bank specialists after monitoring their skills and knowledge in relevant fields. You never get SBB ASCP certificates until you prove your expertise by passing the ASCP Board of Certification (BOC) test.

To achieve this credential, you must have extensive experience in blood group systems, blood products, transfusion practice, lab operations, etc.

SBB (ASCP) Vs. SBB (ASCPi)

The ASCP Board of Certification (BOC) offers ASCP credentials for U.S. and non-US residents. Hence, SBB (ASCP) certificates are for the U.S., and SBB (ASCPi) certificates are for international candidates.

Test format, exam content area, and reading list resources are the same for SBB ASCP/ASCPi while eligibility requirements and application charges are different. For instance, the application fee for U.S. candidates is $300, while $260 is for international candidates.

Requirements for ASCP Specialist in Blood Bank

Whether you are a U.S. or international candidate, you have to meet some eligibility requirements to sit for the test. These prerequisites are called routes. These routes are determined by ASCP BOC. To qualify for the exam, applicants need to meet at least one route requirement.

Eligibility Routes for U.S

• Route 1: Chemistry or biology baccalaureate degree from an accepted institution and a specialist in the CAAHEP’s blood banking technology program.

• Route 2: BB or MLS (ASCP) credentials and a bachelor's degree from an accredited university or college. Besides this, three years of clinical blood banking experience from an accepted lab.

• Route 3: Master degree in chemistry, immunohematology,  microbiology, or another relevant field from an accepted institution. And, within the past six years, three years of clinical experience in a blood bank from an acceptable laboratory

• Route 4: Doctorate in biology, microbiology, immunology, chemistry, or another related field. Clinical experience or post-doctoral fellowship of two year in clinical blood banking from an authorized laboratory.

• Route 5: BB (ASCP) or MLS (ASCP) certification and a bachelor's degree from an accredited institution. And full-time clinical experience of three year in blood banking from an authorized institution or lab within the past six years.

• Route 6: Master degree in medical lab science, microbiology, immunology, or another relevant field. And as an institutional educator, an acceptable clinical blood banking experience at an accredited institution or from an accepted lab.

• Route 7: MLS ASCP or BB ASCP credentials. Doctorate in microbiology immunology, biology, or another relevant field from an accepted institution. And clinical experience of one year in blood banking from an acceptable lab or one year of blood banking research expertise in Canada or the U.S. within the past five years.

Eligibility Routes for International

• Route 1: Biological science or Chemistry baccalaureate degree from an authorized institution and complete one year of a post-baccalaureate clinical training program in blood banking.

• Route 2: BB (ASCP or ASCPi) or MLS (ASCP or ASCPi) certification and a bachelor's degree. And 3 years of blood banking clinical expertise from an accredited laboratory.

• Route 3: Master's degree in biology, immunohematology, chemistry, or other related content area from an accredited educational institution. And 3 years of blood banking clinical expertise from an accredited laboratory.

• Route 4: BB (ASCP or ASCPi) or MLS (ASCP or ASCPi) credentials and a bachelor's degree. And 3 years of clinical experience as an educational instructor in an accepted lab.

• Route 5: Master degree in chemistry, immunohematology, medical lab science, or another related field. And 3 years of blood banking clinical experience from an authorized laboratory as an educational instructor.

Teaching Or Lab Expertise for ASCP & ASCPi

To fulfill the ASCP specialist in blood banking experience requirements, you must also have the following teaching or laboratory experience within the demanded time frame:

• Indications for transfusion
• Immune hemolytic anemias
• Transfusion reactions
• Rh immune globulin evaluation
• Transfusion Indications
• Fetus and newborn (HDFN) hemolytic disease
• Rh typing and ABO grouping
• Antibody identification and detection
• Blood group antigens Tests
• Antiglobulin tests
• Crossmatching
• Equipment, Reagents
• Processing & donor testing
• Donor collection, selection, and preparation
• Storage and administration preparation component

SBB ASCP Test for Specialist in Blood Banking

The candidates with ASCP-specialist in blood banking credentials are responsible for doing complicated tests by using advanced strategies. They offer very accurate results by forming tests that assist physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

After fulfilling the application requirements that may be related to education, experience, or skill in the relevant field, you have to create an account on the BOC official website, if you do not have.

Thereafter, you will receive an application form from ASCP BOC. Be careful to fill this out and add all required documentation, including letters of authenticity, foreign transcripts, etc. Read your filled-out form again and again before submitting it. Because your little mistake can make you ineligible for an exam.

The ASCP Board of Certification (BOC) takes up to 45 days to approve your application. You will get a notification via email from ASCP BOC. After this, you can schedule your ASCP blood bank specialist exam.

BOC Exam Format

CAT (computer adaptive testing) is an ASCP specialist in blood banking exam format. This computer shows the next questions based on your previous question answers.

If the answer to your previous question is correct, the upcoming question the computer shows is slightly tougher than the previous one. On the other hand, if your answer is wrong, then your next question will be a little easier than the earlier one.

You have to solve all the questions that the computer puts in front of you. Because you do not have any skip options.

This exam comprises 100 MCQs that come from relevant exam content areas. The ASCP Board of Certification (BOC) gives you 2 hours & 30 minutes to end this test.

BOC Exam Result

You will get a pass or fail result after completing the test promptly. However, the actual score reports that you get from the test will be received after four business days.

0-999 are the total score ranges for all ASCP exams, including ASCP specialist in blood banking. However, 400 is the minimum score that essential to get.

SBB ASCP Study Guide & Test Content Guidelines

ASCP BOC determines six exam content areas for the ASCP blood bank specialist test and chooses a different percentage of questions from every exam content area. Exam content and their percentage are given below:

• Blood Products: 1o-15%
• Blood Group Systems: 15-20%
• Immunology & Physiology:  15 – 25%
• Serologic & Molecular Testing:  20-25%
• Transfusion Practice: 15-20%
• Laboratory Operations: 10 – 15%

BOC Reading List for Specialist in Blood Banking ASCP

With the exam content area and eligibility requirements, ASCP BOC also determine a reading list that comprises many reading resources for exam preparation. Some of the reading list resources are presented below:

Journal

• Transfusion. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
• Immunohematology. Published by Sciendo.
• Transfusion Medicine Reviews. Published by Elsevier.
• Journal of Clinical Apheresis. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
• Transfusion Medicine. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Textbooks

• Rossi's Principles of Transfusion Medicine 6th Edition
• Transfusion Therapy: Clinical Principles and Practice, 4th Edition
• Laboratory Management, Principles and Processes, Fourth Edition
• Clinical Laboratory Hematology — Print Offer (4th Edition)
• Clinical Immunology and Serology A Laboratory Perspective Fifth Edition
• Rodak's Hematology 6th Edition
• Modern Blood Banking & Transfusion Practices Seventh Edition
• Standards for Blood Banks and Transfusion Services. 33rd edition
• Standards for Immunohematology Reference Laboratories. 12th edition

Online

• AABB
• Blood Bank Guy – Transfusion Medicine Education
• CAP Accreditation Checklists
• Indian Immunohematology Initiative
• International Society of Blood Transfusion
• Transfusion Medicine Questions

Study Material for ASCP Blood Bank Specialist

Although the ASCP BOC determines the exam preparation resources in the. However, the ASCP Board of Certification (BOC) also mentioned that these resources are a partial source of preparation. So, the questions that are chosen for the exam do not only come from the BOC reading list but also from other sources of preparation.

If you have enough time for preparation, to prepare yourself from BOC-recommended resources is not a big plan. But, if you have limited time for exam preparation, must trust the MLSIA study material that covers all BOC reading list resources into one unified learning source with no fluff.

MLSiACADEMY.com’s learning material offers all exam content areas with necessary details and removes unnecessary parts. No doubt that passing the ASCP BOC test is not easy, but MLSIA experts are struggling to make it easy for you.

This study material comprises detailed study guides, practice questions, and interactive learning tools that help to speed up your learning abilities.

MLSiACADEMY.com’s study source designed by specialists in blood banking that turns all complicated content areas into simple ones to make them digestible and understandable.

SBB ASCP Exam Preparation

An ASCP specialist in blood banking is a powerful certificate that gives you a higher opportunity to work in any worldwide hospital, better salaries, and higher career satisfaction. However, candidates consider it as a challenging exam that cannot be overcome without proper preparation.

In this regard, the MLSiACADEMY.com preparation course is valuable because it offers all the required information for the exam in different ways, including PDFs or visual illustrations.

To eliminate your efforts with exam preparation, MLSIA experts are struggling a lot to offer the ultimate SBB prep package for ASCP specialists in blood bank certificates. This preparatory course comprises;

• SBB ASCP live classes
• Recording of all live classes that you can watch during your flexible hours
• One unified reading material (covering BOC reading list resources)
• Questions and answers with practice questions & a question bank that are extracted from the previous exams or BOC-recommended exam content areas

How to Achieve SBB ASCP Certification?

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