Dr Elaine Meyer (Harvard U)

1. ALERT Presentation:
Donation after Circulatory Death: An
innovative educational initiative
Elaine C. Meyer, Ph.D., R.N.

2. Background
• Patients awaiting organ transplantation far
exceed availability of healthy organs
• The Institute of Medicine has advocated for
Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD)
protocols in hospitals to expand the potential
donor pool
• Staff knowledge and experience with DCD is
limited and may negatively impact the
implementation of protocols
• A simulation-based educational film is available
(focusing on ethics & family-staff conversations)

3. PICO Question
• Population
– Healthcare and organ procurement providers
• Intervention
– DCD educational film
• Comparison
– Each participating site will be compared to itself pre and post
educational intervention; aggregate comparison across
educational conditions
• Outcome
– Knowledge, attitudes, sense of
preparation, confidence, communicative ability, compliance with
established DCD protocols, use & evaluation of film, frequency
of family-OPO staff meetings to initiate and discuss organ
donation, frequency of consent to donate, frequency of organ
procurement

4. Approach
• Survey to all INSPIRE sites to determine
absence/presence of DCD, current educational
approach and educational needs
• Among those with DCD, pre-post comparison after
educational intervention with educational arms (no
film, film to hospital educators, film to OPO
educators, partnership and film to hospital & OPO)
• Follow natural use, acceptability and efficacy of film
as per outcome measures

5. 3 Questions
• How many INSPIRE sites have DCD protocols?
What, if any, is the role of the simulation center in
education for DCD?
• Design-wise what makes most sense? Film/no film
conditions with pre-post measures; pre-post
measures across with all sites receiving the film
• What are the outcomes that can realistically and
should be measured? Frequency of family-OPO
meetings, consent to donate, and organ
procurement require partnership with regional
OPOs. How realistic is this?