Supporting Organ and Tissue Donation in Clinical Settings: The Pennsylvania Requirement
Course #98410 - $15 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
Every day in the United States, approximately 13 people die waiting for an organ transplant. As of 2026, more than 100,000 individuals remain on the national transplant waiting list, and a new name is added every 8 minutes. In Pennsylvania alone, more than 6,000 residents are awaiting lifesaving transplants, yet the gap between supply and demand persists --not solely due to a lack of willing donors, but often because of missed opportunities within the clinical setting. Pennsylvania law, under Act 90 of 2018, mandates that licensed nurses and physicians receive education in organ and tissue donation as part of their continuing education requirements. This course fulfills that obligation. Its purpose is not merely regulatory compliance; it is to equip the bedside clinician with the knowledge, confidence, and communication skills to identify potential donors, support grieving families, collaborate with procurement organizations, and deliver compassionate care at one of the most sensitive moments in the human experience.
This course is designed for nurses and physicians involved in the care of patients who may be eligible for organ and tissue donation.
The purpose of this course is to provide healthcare professionals with an evidence-based overview of organ and tissue donation, including identification of potential donors, clinical and ethical considerations, and best practices for communication and coordination to support successful donation outcomes.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Describe the structure and key stakeholders of the U.S. organ donation and transplantation system, including the roles of OPTN, UNOS, OPOs, and Pennsylvania's designated procurement organizations.
- Differentiate between donation after brain death (DBD) and donation after circulatory death (DCD).
- Apply the clinical criteria and exclusion criteria for determining neurological death, including the required components of the brain death examination and the conditions under which ancillary testing is warranted.
- Demonstrate effective communication strategies for notifying families of brain death and discussing donation.
- Implement evidence-based organ donor management goals (DMGs) to optimize hemodynamic stability, respiratory function, and hormonal balance in the deceased donor.
Mary Franks, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and NetCE Nurse Planner. She works as a Nurse Division Planner for NetCE and a per diem nurse practitioner in urgent care in Central Illinois. Mary graduated with her Associate’s degree in nursing from Carl Sandburg College, her BSN from OSF Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing in 2013, and her MSN with a focus on nursing education from Chamberlain University in 2017. She received a second master's degree in nursing as a Family Nurse Practitioner from Chamberlain University in 2019. She is an adjunct faculty member for a local university in Central Illinois in the MSN FNP program. Her previous nursing experience includes emergency/trauma nursing, critical care nursing, surgery, pediatrics, and urgent care. As a nurse practitioner, she has practiced as a primary care provider for long-term care facilities and school-based health services. She enjoys caring for minor illnesses and injuries, prevention of disease processes, health, and wellness. In her spare time, she stays busy with her two children and husband, coaching baseball, staying active with her own personal fitness journey, and cooking. She is a member of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the Illinois Society of Advanced Practice Nursing, for which she is a member of the bylaws committee.
Contributing faculty, Mary Franks, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
John M. Leonard, MD
Margo A. Halm, RN, PhD, NEA-BC, FAAN
The division planners have disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.
Supported browsers for Windows include Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 and up, Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and up, Opera 9.0 and up, and Google Chrome. Supported browsers for Macintosh include Safari, Mozilla Firefox 3.0 and up, Opera 9.0 and up, and Google Chrome. Other operating systems and browsers that include complete implementations of ECMAScript edition 3 and CSS 2.0 may work, but are not supported. Supported browsers must utilize the TLS encryption protocol v1.1 or v1.2 in order to connect to pages that require a secured HTTPS connection. TLS v1.0 is not supported.
The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.