Courses / Healthcare & Medicine

Organ Donation: The Essentials for Healthcare Professionals

Understand the key processes regarding organ donation with this course for healthcare professionals, anywhere in the world.

Organ Donation: The Essentials for Healthcare Professionals

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  • Duration 2 weeks
  • Weekly study 2 hours
  • Learn Free
  • Extra benefits From $79 Find out more

Learn about different aspects of organ donation

Despite organ donation being hugely important there is currently limited training for healthcare workforce regarding the complex issues around organ and tissue donation. This course aims to change that.

On the course, created in collaboration with the NHS Blood and Transplant service, you will learn about the basic principles and processes involved in organ donation from the legal aspects, to types of donation, to the importance of communication with families.

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What topics will you cover?

  • Fundamentals of organ donation
  • Criteria for donation
  • Legal and ethical issues around organ donation
  • The role of the Specialist Nurse in Organ Donation
  • Donations after Death by Neurological Criteria (Brainstem Death) or Circulatory Death
  • Checking donor suitability
  • The organ retrieval process
  • Family care and follow up

When would you like to start?

Most FutureLearn courses run multiple times. Every run of a course has a set start date but you can join it and work through it after it starts. Find out more

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

  • Explain the importance and basic principles of organ donation.
  • Summarise the types of donation, organs which can be donated and the absolute contraindications for donation.
  • Identify the key processes associated with organ donation such as referral, family consent, patient assessment, management of potential donors and organ allocation.
  • Describe assessing and diagnosing death by neurological criteria and management of a brainstem dead patient.
  • Evaluate the importance of laws and guidance that governs the process of organ donation and transplantation.
  • Describe tissue donation and how this is facilitated in UK.
  • Reflect upon the importance of family communication in the organ donation process.

Who is the course for?

This course is for Specialist Nurses in Organ Donation (SNODs), and healthcare professionals such as nurses and doctors of all levels of experience who wish to either update their knowledge or improve their awareness of the subject, for personal or CPD reasons. It will also be useful for students training to become healthcare professionals.

Who will you learn with?

Hannah Cock

Hannah Cock

Professor of Epilepsy & Medical Education; Mother of a son who donated his organs

Dr Shibu Chacko MBE

Dr Shibu Chacko MBE

Specialist Nurse in Organ Donation (SNOD)
NHS Blood and Transplant UK.

Gordon Turpie

Gordon Turpie

Specialist Nurse for Organ Donation 2009 - 2016 NHS Blood & Transplant (NHSBT). Base: St Georges Hospital. Practice Development Specialist (PDS) NHSBT 2016 - present

Who developed the course?

St George's, University of London

St George’s is the UK’s only university dedicated to medical and health sciences education, training and research.

NHS BT

NHS Blood and Transplant provide a blood and transplantation service to the NHS, looking after blood donation services in England and transplant services across the UK.

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