A team of MOHAN Foundation staff were invited as guest speakers for a state-level workshop on organ donation held at Mohamed Sathak AJ College of Nursing on 17th December 2018. Dr. Hemal Kanvinde – Quality Assurance Officer, Ms. Sujatha Suriyamoorthi – Manager - Information Systems, Mr. Ruban Victor – Transplant Coordinator and Mr. Siva Shankar, Helpline Executive were invited for the session.
The workshop was organized by Mrs. S. Mahalakshmi, Associate Professor and HOD – Department of Community Health Nursing. The session which was held at the Alhaj Dr. Dastagir Auditorium began with a welcome speech by Dr. Prof. R. Rama Sambasivan, Principal, by inviting the staff of MOHAN Foundation. Dr. Hemal was felicitated by Dr. Rama. The session then proceeded with a video presentation from Indian Society of Organ Transplantation which illustrated how Tamil Nadu stands first in organ donation compared to other states in the country.
Dr. Hemal Kanvinde began her session by explaining how to counsel recipients, the dos and don’ts in counselling, the history of MOHAN Foundation and the reason behind the conception of the NGO. She then continued with the history of transplants making the session very informative.
Dr. Ramanan Rajagopal, Asst Professor – Department of Neurological Sciences, Christian Medical College, Vellore spoke on the topic Understanding and Certifying Brain Death. He explained the tests that are used to certify brain death and the time required between the set of tests. He played a video that explained how brain death occurs.
Mr. Ruban Victor who took over the next session spoke on Transplant Coordination as a career path for nurses. He described the role of a transplant coordinator and the need for a transplant coordinator in hospitals. He used the example of Lt. Col. Sandhya Nair who is a transplant coordinator in the Army Hospital (Research & Referral) New Delhi to illustrate his point. As a recipient of numerous awards in the field of transplant, Lt. Col. Sandhya’s career progression was very inspiring for the participants who were students of Nursing. He continued his session with a discussion of protocols in hospitals in an organ donation scenario. He explained the role of every individual in the hospital during a transplant including that of a Neurosurgeon, Intensivist, Transplant Coordinator, Nurses, Billing Department, Ambulance Driver and so on. The session lasted for about 1.5 hours.
Post-lunch, posters on organ donation were displayed by the staff and students of Sathak College and other colleges who were at the conference. Ms. Vimala Edwards, Nursing Superintendent, Chettinad Hospitals in her session on The Human Touch - Strengthening Relationship with Transplant Patients, dealt with the following topics:
The above points were discussed so that the nurses or coordinators working in hospitals will know how to behave with patients appropriately.
The final session was handled by Ms. Sujatha Suriyamoorthi who explained themes like breaking bad news, grief counselling and the good and bad approaches in organ donation. She explained in detail on how a coordinator should approach a patient’s family to break the news of the death of their loved one and begin the discussion of organ donation. She described the stages of grief from denial to acceptance. She further elaborated on the difficulties a transplant coordinator will encounter when it comes to talking with the family.
Certificates were distributed to all the participants and mementos given to the staff of MOHAN Foundation which brought the event to a close. MOHAN Foundation is thankful to the management of the Mohamed Sathak AJ College for the opportunity to participate in the event.
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