Development of the Center for Living Donation: Incorporating the Role of the Nurse Practitioner as Director

Abstract

For decades, live organ donors have been cared for within the transplant program by the same team that cared for the recipient without any standardization, practice guidelines, or evidence-based evaluation. In an effort to improve the care of living donors, regulations and guidelines to dictate care and follow-up have been instituted. Practices still vary from center to center, and the quality of care that live donors receive also varies. A “Living Donor Center” focused solely on the care of actual and potential donors before and after donation is one way to provide the infrastructure to comply with regulatory mandates and deliver high-quality care to this specialized population of patients. A Center for Living Donation was developed within a Transplantation Institute to address the short- and long-term needs of live donors and confine all donor care to a team of experts led by a doctorally prepared nurse practitioner as the director. A transplant nurse practitioner is uniquely poised to assume such a role because of such competencies as clinical and professional leadership, ability to act as a change agent, communication skills, and ability to lead a multidisciplinary team.