We (the National Capitol Area Chapter) have a few events coming up (we don’t do anything in the summer):

• A transplant candidates forum on 10/22.  Usually about 80-100 transplant candidates and their families attend. We do this 2-3 times a year.  Our OPO sponsors this event (about 4 hours with lunch) at various locations around the greater DC area.  They have a speaker on “the list” and a caregiver’s story and we present information on TRIO and assure them that there is life after transplant.  We also use this as an opportunity to encourage them to “get the word out” about organ donation.  Many of our members attend the luncheon and we sit in groups, by organ, and answer questions that the candidates don’t want to ask their TX coordinator or doctor.  (Sex is frequently a topic!)
• Halloween Parade in Vienna, VA with the TRIO race car, members marching with our banner that says “Organ Donation Gives Back to the Community.”  Kelly, the Kidney will also be marching.  We cannot give anything away at this parade, but we will have a couple of paragraphs read about organ and tissue donation, when we get to the reviewing stand.
• Holiday party in December.
• Speaker’s bureau training session this week for our members and other people interested in speaking about transplants to church groups, civic clubs, etc.
• Our OPO is starting a new program, pairing selected recipients and donor families, to go as a team to hospitals during various shifts and to various departments (ER, surgical, ICU) at various times of the day to do a 1-2 hour in-service for the nursing staff about the organ donation.  I am surprised how many nurses still are in the dark about organ donation.  I know there now is a short segment (4 hours?) in the national nursing curriculum but that is a recent edition, so nurses who have been out of school for a while may not be up to speed on this.

 

I hope you have a successful meeting in LA

 

Linda K. Cheatham, CPA