DONATION BEST PRACTICES: Beyond the Basic Organ Donation In-Service

 

---

Nurse Educators and Nurse Managers play a critical role in assuring quality educational experiences that prepare the nursing workforce for a diverse, ever-changing health care environment. This can be a daunting task — considering the multitude of skills required of critical care nurses, including organ donation.

Traditionally, organ donation has found its place in critical care nursing competencies through the coordination of in-services on the ICUs and EDs as well as within new nurse orientation programs.

While these in-services will always be a valuable tool, Nurse Educators at hospitals within the Finger Lakes Donor Recovery Network service area are breaking out of the norm and creating unique learning opportunities for their critical care nurses to learn about the organ, eye and tissue donation process.

Colleges and universities are also getting in on the action and partnering up with local hospitals to expose nursing students to donation best practices. Teaching hospitals are also at an advantage as they can also incorporate the topic right into their curriculum.

FLDRN is grateful to be a part of these creative and comprehensive education initiatives.

Here are a few examples…

---

 

HOSPITAL: Rochester General Hospital, Rochester, NY

Organizer:
Wende M. Ryan, MS, RN-BC, LNC, CEN – Critical Care Educator

Program:
Critical Care Mandatory Skills Day

What are the benefits that make this program unique from a basic in-service?
“The eight-hour day offers critical care staff the ability to arrive at their own time and visit each station at their own pace. They are able to complete each mandatory skill, such as a presentation from FLDRN, at their own pace. It allows the educators to bundle the mandatory skills and education in one place for many individuals, as we see an average of 100 staff through each day the skills are offered.” – Wende M. Ryan

———-

HOSPITAL: Strong Memorial, Rochester, NY

Organizer:

Nancy Freeland, RN, MSN, CCRN – Senior Service Educator – Adult Critical Care Nursing

Program:
Critical Decisions Class – Organ, Eye and
Tissue Donation

Specifics:
Three hour class held two times a year. Attendees are nurses who work in areas with potential for organ and tissue donation including the (hospital’s) 8 ICU’s and progressive care units in Critical Care Nursing, the PICU and PCICU, and the Emergency Department. Attendance is a requirement for all new nurses while they are on orientation.

What are the benefits that make this program unique from a basic in-service?
“Not only do nurses receive valuable information about organ, eye and tissue donation from the FLDRN coordinators and staff, but they also learn about the donation process from the perspective of the donor family and recipients.”
– Nancy Freeland

———-

HOSPITAL: Crouse Hospital, Syracuse, NY

Organizers:
Tara Box, RN, BSN, CNOR – Educational Coordinator – ICU/ED/Promptcare
Michael Allain, MS RN, CCRN, CEN

Program:
Critical Decisions Class – Organ, Eye and Tissue Donation

Specifics:
The class is offered 4 times/year for the ICU, Emergency Services, Respiratory Therapy, Med Surg Float Pool and PACU.

What are the benefits of offering this comprehensive class?
“…It provides in-depth exploration into aspects of donor referral, patient management and family care (and) good knowledge base of the items needed to make appropriate referrals.” – Tara Box

———-

HOSPITAL: Strong Memorial Hospital, Burn/Trauma ICU

Organizer:
Marcie Metroyanis, RN, MSN Burn/Trauma ICU Nurse Manager

Program:
Burn/Trauma Staff Retreat

Who attends this retreat and how many times a year is it offered?
“Our unit staff retreats are held yearly. It is attended primarily by the RN’s, Patient Care Technicians, and Patient Unit Secretaries. We also invite all members of the disciplinary team to our retreats if they are interested and available. This year, our Social Worker was able to join us.”  – Marcie Metroyanis

What makes this program unique from a basic in-service?
“Basic in-services are typically done on the unit or in the hospital, are held for a brief time, and involve one topic. We can design the unit retreat to be off-site to allow staff a relaxing environment away from the workplace and also structure the day based on the interest of the staff, needs of the staff, and a theme of some sort to incorporate team building. This year’s retreat was primarily trauma focused and we based education on many components of trauma care. We also presented and utilized the Fish! Philosophy for our team building portion of the retreat. This exercise allowed us to have interactive activities periodically throughout the day.”
– Marcie Metroyanis

What benefits or feedback have you observed or received for including organ donation education in topics discussed at your retreat?
“Having a section reserved for an organ donation discussion was beneficial because this allowed us to be able to educate all staff members. It also allows everyone to receive all of the same information as well as a basic overview for our new staff or staff who have never experienced the organ donation process. In addition, it has been extremely valuable to invite speakers from FLDRN in this type of venue to allow questions, concerns, and/or feedback to occur in the presence of the entire team.” – Marcie Metroyanis

———-

COLLEGE/UNIVERSITY: SUNY Brockport

Educator:
Nancy Iafrati, MS, RN – Assistant Professor/Department of Nursing

Name of course (in which organ donation is presented):
NUR442/Critical Care

Why do you include this topic in the curriculum?
“This (organ donation) is a very important topic. There are many myths that surround organ donation and, as a result, people are wary about donating. This is a class on critical care and in this setting there can be bad outcomes, including trauma and TBI. Nurses need to be aware of end-of-life options that can be presented to the patient’s family when things like this happen.” – Nancy Iafrati

How do students benefit from learning about organ donation?
“Students have come to realize that they are not alone and that there is an entire health care team that supports the patient and family and the transplant recipient. They now know what the nurse’s role is when it comes to organ donation and realize that good (organ donation) can come out of bad (brain death).”
– Nancy Iafrati

What feedback have you received about the class on organ donation?
“Students sign up to be organ donors and often go on to address the topic about organ donation in the ethics paper that is required as part of this course. Later in the semester, students are part of a simulation and the outcome is that the patient passes. Students who have had this class feel more comfortable about the topic on organ donation after they have had this class.” – Nancy Iafrati

[autonav display=”list,thumb,excerpt” orderby=”menu_order”]