Continuing education episode! I've known Dr. Pat Kopko, Director of Transfusion Medicine at UC San Diego, for over 30 years! For this episode, we decided to have a conversation about the "essential" things we wish we would have known back when we started on our respective paths to being blood bankers. Pat and I get really, really practical, and give you tons of useful information, including tips, memory tools, and facts presented in a memorable way. This episode is one for all of you who don’t do blood banking every day: Residents, medical students, clinicians, non-blood bank pathologists, nurses, non-blood bank laboratory scientists, and anyone else who doesn’t live in our world all the time! So, pull up a chair, eavesdrop on two friends talking the “Essentials,” and enjoy! This episode is eligible for FREE CME and SAMs/CC credit for physicians and P.A.C.E. contact hours for laboratorians through Transfusion News Continuing Education on Wiley Health Learning.