Week 4 GOL (June 26-June 30)

 Hello friends! Im back with another exciting week! I went to a Corn-hole for Corneas event and toured the ICUs of Temple University Hospital! Read below for more! 

Monday (June 26): Today Francesca and I embarked on our journey to Temple University Hospital. Amidst parking confusion, crosswalks, and business clothes we finally found our location. We met up with Joe Paparo, Temple University's Hospital Services coordinator, and shadowed him for the first half of the day. We began in a conference room where he sent out his weekly email to the team updating and editing current cases that the Transplant Coordinators and himself are tracking. Then, we visited the Neuro ICU which was in a separate building adjacent to the main hospital. We just made a circle and said hi to some of the nurses. Part of the reason it is important for these Hospital Services coordinators to make their presence known serves as a reminder for nurses and physicians to refer any patients they may not have referred to Gift of Life and for the coordinator to check in with current patients located in these ICUs

 Temple is interesting because they have two smaller neuro ICUs. We then went back to the main hospital and made a round in the respiratory ICU, again just saying hi to the nurses and making Gift of Life's presence known. After that, we went to the Cardiac ICU and then Joe needed to hop onto a Zoom meeting and present to a class for about fifteen minutes. Soon after we made a trip up to the surgical ICU where we heard that someone who had been there for a while was finally going to receive a heart transplant! The medical ICU was the largest ICU we toured due to the medical ICU also being one with the Surgical ICU. We then went to lunch where I was very impressed by the hospital cafeteria and the options available. After eating we traveled back up to visit the burn unit and finally visited the ER. The ER was pretty mellow, however, as we were leaving they announced on the intercom what sounded like it was a pretty large trauma (I won't disclose details because of HIPPA). 

After our time at Temple, we traveled back to the Gift of Life office and joined the Regional Kidney Collaboration Meeting with Hospital Services. The Kidney Collaboration meeting had many healthcare professionals from GOL's regional hospitals. The meeting was to provide input on how to improve education and interaction with grieving families and how to remind staff members of Gift of Life's ultimate goal. It was a meeting rich with information and ideas that Hospital Services can apply to improve morale. To the right is a photo of some of the ideas we came up with (I apologize for the blurriness) Overall the day was pretty amazing. 

Tuesday (June 27): Today was also a pretty amazing day! I was back in Tissue services and given the opportunity to scrub in and place a corn fiber stilt where the donor's lower limb bones were and actually close the donor as well. This amazing individual gifted their skin and lower limb bones to help those in need. I was complimented on the uniformity of my stitches which felt pretty amazing. After my time in tissue, I attended a Didactic with the Transplant coordinators in training where we were introduced to Quest (the curriculum) and Remote Learning. Overall today was an amazing experience. 

Wednesday (June 28): Today was interesting. I joined a Zoom meeting where most of the current Transplant Coordinators (TCs) were having a Case Review staff meeting. The meeting started by overviewing what the TCs do and how incredible they are at their jobs. The meeting then funneled into reviewing four cases that were interesting, whether they ended in a "yes" for donation or not. The TCs that handled each of these cases gave an overview of what occurred from start to finish, including their family conversations, and received constructive feedback from their higher-ups. It was a pretty cool meeting. Soon after, I joined didactics with the TCs in training for the second day. We spoke about the Donor referral process and received an introduction to Gift of Life. We then reviewed the website Gift of Life (GOL) uses to track their referrals, donors, and recipients. I won't disclose that website name because I'm not sure if I am allowed to. We were then given access to the test site and practiced putting in a referral including the
medical and social history in addition to information we found by reading their charts. It was a pretty fun exercise and I feel like I learned a lot. 

Thursday (June 29): Today was pretty cool. For the first part of the day, I attended another course with the TCs in training about Hospital Development Philosophy and Strategy and then the Legislative Framework that led to routine referrals (a requirement for hospitals to refer every patient that passes or is on a ventilator with a non-recoverable injury/illness). We learned about all of the individual legislations and the legal jargon within those policies and what all of the policies meant. I found it interesting how the policies varied slightly depending on whether it was passed in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Or Delaware. The really exciting portion of my day was volunteering at the Cornhole for Corneas event/fundraiser put on by The Lions Eyebank of Deleware Valley (Soon to be called Altruvision). Francesca and I worked at the silent auction table, answering questions and helping people differentiate all of their raffle tickets due to all of the raffle events occurring. In the middle of the event, we all took a break from the corn-hole tournament and migrated outside to watch the donor families and transplant recipients take part in the live butterfly release. Those butterflies were held in these little envelopes that people gently opened and allowed the butterflies to fly free.

The butterflies represent new beginnings and transformation, aligning with the idea that when you receive a cornea transplant and are gifted a second chance at sight, your life is forever transformed along with the donor families that contribute to that second chance of sight to recipients. It was a very fun and beautiful event. We were also given the opportunity to listen to a cornea recipient speak on how his life has been transformed since his transplant and then we heard from a donor family who spoke about how their lives are forever changed since the loss of their loved one, but how they are so proud that their loved one has helped many others. I really enjoyed volunteering at the third annual Cornhole for Corneas event and seriously recommend attending if you are ever in town when it happens! 

Friday (June 30): Today, I primarily worked on my project and transferred data over to Excel. I also read a portion of the Brain Death reading I need to complete before our next didactic with the TCs in training. I am very excited for this next class because I will learn about what exactly brain death is and then how to explain the concept to people that might not have any idea in an empathetic and knowledgeable manner. 

This week was pretty amazing and I am learning so so much. Stay tuned for my post next week and enjoy the photos from this week! (I know many are from the Cornhole for Corneas event). 

Have a wonderful day! -Rachael