Creating a Hospital-Based Certification Program for Organ Donation Management

Purpose: Certification is a benchmark for recognizing clinical and expertise among nursing professionals. The American Nurses Association, American Nurses Credentialing Center, and The American Association of Critical Care Nurses are among the groups that advocate certification as a means to recognize knowledge and competence, improve patient outcomes, and empower and engage nurses in their areas of expertise.   The review of the literature does not represent a specialty certification in organ donation management for critical care nurses.  The survey of nursing staff, the number of process related breakdowns, and loss of donation opportunity indicated a need for further investigation and education.  Educational interventions are an integral part of efforts to promote best practice, inform providers, and improve patient care.  Interventions alone do not recognize and validate expertise.  Charleston Area Medical Center in association with the Center for Organ Recovery and Education offered the first educational intervention specifically targeted to critical care nurses for the care and management of donor patients and their families.  The program is organized as a certification review course.

Methods: The course outline and materials were compiled by faculty representing medicine, nursing, quality management, organ and tissue recovery,  transplant, and  administration.  The activity was built around clinical domains, caring practice, legal , ethical and regulatory standards.  The conference consisted of speakers from the listed disciplines, power-point, group activities including case studies and question and answer sessions including a special session with donor families. The title of the course and hospital recognized certification is the CAMC Certified Donor Management Nurse (CDMN).   The first course was offered in November of 2013.  The second course was offered in 2014.  Currently there is a third class scheduled for 2015.  Participants were given 60 days to take their exam and be recognized as certified.

Results: The first group of participants represented nurses from the eight critical care units at CAMC. The second group represented nurses from seven of the critical care units at Charleston Area Medical Center. Fourteen of a total of 21 nurses have taken and successfully passed the certifying exam. The certified nurses are now recognized by the organization, physicians, and peers  as clinical experts in the care and management of donor patients and their families. Requirements of nurses certified include participation in donor recognition activities, advocacy, peer education and taking the exam annually to maintain certification. The certified nurses have been recognized in the hospital based electronic newsletter as well as print media. They will receive certificates of achievement and be honored during the CAMC “Power of Donation” month in June of 2014.

Conclusion: Currently  improvement data is being  monitored including: number of referrals, management of the donor patient, organ yield per donor, and conversion rates. Charleston Area Medical Center will explore offering the class to partner hospitals in the future.

References

Krapohl, G., Manojlovich, M., Redman, R., and Zhang, L. (2010). Nursing specialty certification and nursing sensitive patient outcomes in the intensive care unit. American Journal of Critical Care. 19(6), 490-498.