BRiC study update: December 2019 - Update No. 1

BRiC Study - Burnout and Resilience in Organ Donation Coordinators

December 2019 - Update No. 1

Background

Organ and tissue donation coordinators (OTDCs) face challenging and stressful scenarios on a daily basis that often leads to burnout, attrition, and compassion fatigue. Research on turnover rates among OTDCs has shown that job tenure for coordinators was less than 3 years, which is one of the possible consequences of burnout. Increased turnover rates of OTDCs would likely have significant impact on the ability of organ donation organizations (ODOs) to optimize donation. However, very little is known about the true extent of this problem worldwide and nothing is known about how it may impact coordinators in Canada. Instead of rehiring and retraining when OTDCs resign, we are proposing an innovative way of dealing with burnout: identifying and intervening in the causes to avoid losing experienced and exceptional OTDCs.

Study Overview

BRIC study (3 phase study) – A systematic approach to understand and intervene in the issue of burnout among organ donor coordinators in Canada. Firstly, we will identify the scope of published and unpublished papers. Following that, an exploratory study to identify burnout levels and OTDCs’ perception of the issue. Lastly, a tailored intervention will be implemented in each participant ODO.

Core research team

The BRiC Study Core research team

Phase 1: Status of the Scoping Review: Timeline

Graphic of Phase I, timeline

Additional Projects

A working meeting is planned for February 2020, in which we will seek input of knowledge users (organ donor coordinators and administrative staff of ODOs) in preliminary results of the scoping review and will brainstorm with OTDCs and ODOs to identify the best strategies to successfully develop and employ phases 2 and 3 of the BRIC study. A focus group is planned to gather information in detail. An invitation letter was sent to the Donation and Transplantation Administrators Advisory Committee.

Working meeting

A qualitative study to identify how an intervention implemented in a western province of Canada impacted OTDCs’ level of burnout/resilience.
- Status: project under REB revision, pending collaboration agreement signatures between CHEO, OHRI, and the Western ODO.

Opinion paper

An opinion paper is planned for publication in February 2020 in collaboration with Canadian OTDCs, who will be able to voice their concerns and perceptions about the issue of burnout. An invitation letter was sent to the Donation and Transplantation Administrators Advisory Committee.

 

If you have any questions, please contact us at: vsilvaesilva@cheo.on.ca.  

 

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