Online Role-Play Tool Increases Donation Professionals’ Skill and Confidence Level in Leading Family Conversations for Organ and Tissue Donation Authorization

Background International training institute uses medical school’s online role-play platform to augment donation professionals’ family donation conversation (FDC) training, provide focused feedback and improve skill and confidence for the FDC. Aim Increase the skill and confidence level of donation professional leading FDCs for organ and tissue donation authorization as research indicates improved donation professionals’ confidence in leading FDCs is associated with higher authorization rates.[1] Materials & Methods The online role-play tool is used to augment virtual classroom training courses, as well as traditional classroom trainings for both organ and tissue donation professionals. The donation professional meets with coach through online role-play tool for approximately 50 minutes for interactive skills practice and to assess, coach and improve donation professionals’ judgment and communications skills. A checklist with a list of skills deemed necessary for successful donation conversation is used to assess the donation professional. Individual feedback, along with review of pre-recorded vignettes demonstrating the skills, is provided to the donation professional. The donation professional also gets a recording of the session for reference and continued practice. Results More than 185 donation professionals from 17 OPOs have used the tool for role-play practice. Feedback from donation professionals through an online evaluation was positive and indicated improved skill and confidence levels. When donation professionals were asked to rate the value of the feedback received from the coach, 88% said Extremely Valuable-Very Valuable; when asked to rate confidence in conducting family conversations after using the online role-play tool, 100% responded Very Good-Good; 94% responded that they would recommend the online tool to another donation professional and 81% indicated they would elect to use the online tool over the traditional face-to-face role play. Conclusion Research indicates that higher confidence levels during a FDC correlate to higher authorization rates. Donation professionals are challenged to receive adequate one-on-one training to strengthen his/her skill and build confidence. Based on a survey of donation professionals, confidence levels in leading FDCs increased among those who used the online role-play tool. The time period between using the tool and evaluation is too short to assess long term increased skill and authorization rates. It is anticipated that rates will increase. Reference: 1. Siminoff L, Gordon N, Hewlett J, Arnold R: Factors influencing families’ consent for donation of solid organs for transplantation. JAMA 2001, 286(1):71–77.