Midwifery, Nursing & Primary health care

Ananthanayagi Purushothaman

The National Centre for organ donation and Transplant
Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Abstract Title: Implementing evidence based guidelines to increase organ donation rates

Biography: Anan is a registered Advanced Critical care Nurse Practitioner in the United Kingdom, worked in some of the leading academic centres in the world as a front-line nurse, manger, educator, and as a coordinator in a variety of critical care specialties and field of organ donation and transplantation for past 20 years. Strong experience and expertise in state –of-the art patient care and research. Having Patient care is at the centre, developed teams, empowered colleagues, and established best practices to execute multiple successful programs in UAE Healthcare. Anan is a founding member of the UAE organ donation and International paired kidney transplant programmes.

Research Interest: Introduction: Organ transplantation from deceased brain-dead donor (DBD) legalized in the UAE since 2016. However, medical care for potential DBD varies among hospitals and even among physicians at same institution. We formulated a standardized donor management protocol according to latest international guidelines with a view increase our organ donation rates. Objectives: Study the outcomes of implementation of a standard of a DBD donor management program at a various hospital in UAE. Methods: A multi-pronged action plan implemented across the hospitals to improve awareness about DBD, addressed knowledge gap among the multidisciplinary team and updating about the latest management guidelines & policies for DBD and specialized training to approach families. A comprehensive educational program implemented to raise awareness and improve knowledge about DBD and diagnosis plus management for brain death donor. In addition, sessions planned to train critical care unit staff on approaching families of potential DBD. In addition, sessions on diagnosis of brain death and organ donation were mandated for all new employees as part of hospital orientation to raise awareness of the role and importance of organ donation. Once brain death confirmed, a standardized donor management care bundle was initiated early to ensure high quality organs for transplantation. In addition, to set up organ donation referral pathways and development of donor management protocols in our electronic medical record, streamlining process and practices. Results: The national organ donation program has been able to save more than 1000 patients’ lives between UAE and neighbouring countries. Conclusion: Deceased donation is time critical process, which requires development of robust clinical governance pathways to establish UAE as the leading organ donation program in the region.