Looking for some feedback and/or ideas from Nurses

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

Hello,

I am looking for some feedback or ideas for a group presentation on a topic. My fellow group and I are having trouble narrowing down our topic to how it effects Nurses.

Each group was given a topic and we have to come up with a statement, a dilemma or issue and in our conclusion, what it means for nurses and nursing. How it effects them, how it might be improved.

When we got our topic it seemed like it would be good. We found lots of dilemmas and and issues, but now that we are trying to pin it down to how it directly impacts nurses and nursing, we are having trouble. Unlike some of the other topics, (workplace bullying, 12 hr shifts vs 8 hr shifts, home births etc) we as students don't have any experience with our topic.

The topic is Organ Donation and Allocation. We came up with topics like exploiting the system in place to get organs, or substance abuse and whether previous abusers should get organs over people who have never abused anything. We have found research articles and studies on these issues, but again, how does this effect nurses and nursing?? None of us have dealt with this topic in clinicals.

So I figured maybe I could come ask here where their are plenty of nurses and who better to know what issues you as nurses face or might be a problem.

If anyone can give some ideas on how this particular topic relates to the nursing field I would greatly appreciate it. That way my group and I can go over the ideas and try to go from there with our presentation.

Thank you for any help.

[Wise Woman RN]

The nursing care of the transplant patient. Communication with donor families.

Is this what you mean??

[RaeRN30, BSN, RN]

I would think dilemmas would stem from different views on The definition of death? Some may think death occurs when harvesting vital organs....just a thought. Try googling "nursing dilemmas with organ donation".

[clemoi]

I'm a nursing student and I work on a med/surg floor. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to watch an organ harvest happen at work one night.

I think if you bring it down to basics, a dilemma for the nurse is the delicate situation of respecting the situation as a death of a family member, allowing the family to stay with the body and grieve their loss while behind the scenes you are preparing paperwork and dealing with the time-sensitive matter of an organ harvest. Also, it may fall on the nurse to ask the family or even the patient for the organ donation wishes. This can be a difficult conversation for someone with a terminal illness or for a family member who isn't ready to let go.

When I stood in on the organ harvest, he mentioned the most difficult situations were donations from bodies of children. Imagine that dilemma for a nurse facilitating the organ donation in such a situation.

As far as allocating, there are transplant nurses who deal specifically with case management of organ donation. They deal with patients from the beginning, coordinating all the testing and determination of qualification for getting on the list to receive organs. A friend who does this kind of job once told me that she gets very close to her patients and said that it is either very exciting and rewarding when a situation works out and the patient receives a successful organ transplant or it can be very sad when things don't work out. I can imagine a number of scenarios where decisions made by the RN would have life changing effects for the patient.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

caring for donors? when i worked out west, some of our area was so far away that donors were transported to us prior to harvesting. one night i had two patients: the donor and one of the potential recipients.

coordinating with the organ retrieval agency?

signing your own donor card because you know how important it is?

religious conflicts about donation, or accepting organs for transplant?

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

How about laws that affect organ donation? IL just passed a law that states if you have a signed donor card/drivers license in IL, then a family member can't trump that donation.

Another thing we are facing in IL is, transporting potential donors (still on life support but brain dead), to Chicago. How does this fit with pts elsewhere in the state?

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

Thank you for the ideas so far everyone, I will print them out and share them with my group.

I appreciate the feedback.

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

I just wanted to thank everyone again. We ended up doing our topic on going from Expressed Consent to Presumed consent, as is done very successfully in many other countries.

Apparently we really knocked out presentation out of the park. Our director and instructors really pressed that we should take our presentation to congress and really look at trying to help get the bill passed again. Other students came up to us congratulating us on how great our presentation was and than saying they were mad though because since we went first, they couldn't possibly follow that. LOL

Anyway it came out really well.

[luvteechn]

regarding the post referred to below... i am working on a paper regarding the dilemmas nurses face regarding organ donations, would you mind sharing what your experience was like in taking care of both the donor and the recipient?

"jan 30, '11 by ruby vee

caring for donors? when i worked out west, some of our area was so far away that donors were transported to us prior to harvesting. one night i had two patients: the donor and one of the potential recipients."