What a fantastic way to start the academic year with a workshop involving the University of Brighton Year 2 Nursing Cohort!
The afternoon began with a presentation of the key facts and processes to provide a solid foundation of all the intricate elements involved in organ donation. This led into a stimulating discussion about the roles of nurses, pharmacists, biomedical scientists and doctors in the organ donation and transplantation pathway – to help understand the different aspects of the multidisciplinary team. It was inspiring to see the cohort so engaged and great to hear their perspective from a nursing point of view.
As part of the workshop, the nurses accessed an online portal using Mentimeter software to send through words of what organ donation means to them, to generate a word cloud.
As a biomedical science student who took part in the workshop last year, it was interesting to see the difference in connotations of organ donation between the two cohorts.
The nurses word cloud reflected their empathic role of being patient centred, care giving and on the front line when dealing with families of which I have a huge amount of respect for.
The afternoon concluded with small group discussions based on case histories from The Royal College of Pathologists, to evaluate which patient should theoretically receive a new liver. This sparked many interesting and thought-provoking conversations. Ultimately the patient who ‘deserves’ the liver will be based on medical urgency. However, in reality, a recipient from Black or Asian community is more likely to wait longer for a compatible organ because there are not enough donors from these communities registering an informed choice and sharing this choice with others.
It was a great experience starting my journey with the organ donation team and was a collaborative and eye-opening day for all!
What a lovely description of the day! I’m sure everyone truly enjoyed it!