The 2021 batch of the one-year online ‘Post Graduate Diploma in Transplant Coordination and Grief Counselling’ successfully completed their course in December 2021. A total of 51 participants from diverse professions enrolled in the training including 50 from India and one from Botswana. This course was supported by the SBI Foundation.

The participants were shared with their credentials to access the resource materials at the beginning of the course. The resource materials covering basic concepts of organ donation, national transplant specific guidelines during the COVID-19 outbreak, legal and ethical aspects, medical aspects, grief counselling and transplant coordination were made available on their e-learning platform.

As part of the course, ten contact sessions were conducted virtually on the Zoom software platform. The sessions focused on the counselling process, approaching grieving families for organ donation, soft skills for transplant coordinators, communication skills in healthcare management, resolving conflict and stress-proof oneself, transplant law in India, the role of a transplant coordinator in the deceased donation and living donor transplant coordination. The webinars also involved activities like quizzes and discussions that kept the participants engaged in the learning process.

The faculty for the webinars included

• Mr. K. Veerapandian (Consultant Psychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychology, Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health, Chennai)
• Dr. Suryakumari (Founder and President, The Academy of Life and People Skills, Chennai)
• Mr. Naveen Nandigam (CEO, 3N Training, Hyderabad)
• Mr. Sivakumar (Assistant General Manager - Liver Transplant Unit, Dr. Rela Institute & Medical Centre, Chennai)
• Ms. Bhavana Shah (Sr. Executive - Administration & Transplant Coordinator, Wockhardt Hospitals, Mumbai).

As part of the course, participants submitted their assignments on the online platform. The final examination was conducted online on 12^th December 2021 (and the reattempt on 6^th February 2022) where a total number of 34 participants cleared their final exam and received their course completion certificates.