Organ Donation: Essentials for Healthcare Professionals

Who is the course for?

This course is for Specialist Nurses in Organ Donation (SNODs), and healthcare professionals such as nurses and doctors of all levels of experience who wish to either update their knowledge or improve their awareness of the subject, for personal or CPD reasons. It will also be useful for students training to become healthcare professionals.

What topics will you cover?

Fundamentals of organ donation

Criteria for donation

Legal and ethical issues around organ donation

The role of the Specialist Nurse in Organ Donation

Donations after Death by Neurological Criteria (Brainstem Death) or Circulatory Death

Checking donor suitability

The organ retrieval process

Family care and follow up

Organ Donation: The Essentials for Healthcare Professionals has been approved by the Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom for 4 category 1 (external) CPD credit(s). The expiry date for CPD approval is December 2021.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to…

Explain the importance and basic principles of organ donation

Summarise the types of donation, organs which can be donated and the absolute contraindications for donation

Identify the key processes associated with organ donation such as referral, family consent, patient assessment, management of potential donors and organ allocation

Describe assessing and diagnosing death by neurological criteria and management of a brainstem dead patient

Evaluate the importance of laws and guidance that governs the process of organ donation and transplantation

Describe tissue donation and how this is facilitated in UK