Step-By-Step Guide
How to Evaluate Potential Donors
Two people have contacted the hospital to volunteer to donate part of their livers for a living-donor transplant for Frank McGrath. Dr. Schaffer has asked you and your colleagues to assess the suitability of these two potential donors. You should carefully read the two physician reports on each of these potential donors, make a decision about whether each donor is acceptable, and write a report justifying your decision.
The following steps will help guide your work.
- Review the email from Dr. Laura Schaffer. It may be helpful to print the email and highlight the important points.
- Download the Donor Evaluation Template attached to Dr. Schaffer’s email. This form will help you organize and target your research.
- You will need two copies of this form. One for each potential donor.
- You will not need to submit this document. Use it to organize the information you need to make a decision about the suitability of each donor, which you will explain in your final report.
- Each team member should download a template and keep his/her own notes. Each of you may notice different things.
- Download and read the physical and psychological reports prepared by the independent internist and psychiatrist. The reports are attached to Dr. Schaffer’s email.
- Enter your findings about each donor’s suitability in the Physical Findings, Psychological Findings, and Situational Findings sections of the Evaluation Template.
- Use the Evaluating Potential Donors FAQ and other resources available on the Resources page to help you make an assessment of each donor.
- Decide whether each finding on your template is a pro or a con. Does the finding indicate that the person is a good candidate as a donor or that the person is a poor candidate? Write your decisions in the 3rd column of the Evaluation Template.
- Decide if either of the two volunteers would make a good living donor. Both? Just Ms. Johnson or just Mr. Murphy? Neither?
- Review your work. Make sure you have considered both donors and are able to justify your decisions.
- Write your report. Using the notes from your Assessment form, write a summary of your analysis of each potential donor. Your summary should be written in Microsoft Word using the Live Donor Evaluation Report Template, which Dr. Schaffer attached to her email. It should explain exactly why you rejected or accepted each donor. For writing help, refer to the General Skills Resources.
- Submit your assignment to your mentor. Review the checklist found on the Submit Your Work section of this task and submit the assignment to your mentor.
What are the key concerns associated wih live donor transplants?