Tissue donations can change the lives of many people in need of a transplant and can bring some comfort to the grieving family. More than 40% of people who die in hospitals in the CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal network are potential tissue donors. That represents nearly 600 patients annually.

Despite offering plenty of training, the CIUSSS tissue donation referral rate has been below 30% for a number of years. Our organ and tissue donation team launched a pilot project in May 2023 to ensure that our medical staff respects the legal obligation to report all potential donors without increasing their workload.

The way it works is that a resource nurse checks the certificates of death in the information system for demographic events (SIED) to identify deaths more efficiently. The nurse then visits the ward where the death occurred to help the care team identify potential tissue donors and make a referral. The resource nurse is there to provide support to the care team when they talk to the family about the standard reporting procedure.

As early as the first few months of the project, the referral rate jumped to more than 60%. The project helped raise awareness among the medical staff, provides care teams with personalized support, and even improves the support to grieving families. Thanks to this project, our medical staff are now more empowered to become ambassadors of change and are better equipped to respect the wishes of patients and their families.

Project submitted by:

Arianne Faille, Organ and Tissue Donation Resource Nurse

Contributors:

Nadine Montreuil, Head of intensive care, intermediate care and organ donation
Annie-Pier Lussier, Resource nurse
Dr. Pierre Marsolais, Organ and tissue donation coordinating physician