Donation & Family Advocate - Gift of Hope

Gift of Hope is proud to serve as the federally designated not-for-profit organ procurement organization (OPO) that coordinates organ and tissue donation and provides compassionate service to families of donors in the northern three-quarters of Illinois and northwest Indiana.

Since our inception in 1986, we have coordinated donations that have saved the lives of more than 23,000 organ transplant recipients, and improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of tissue transplant recipients. As one of 58 organ procurement organizations that make up the nation’s organ donation system, we work with 183 hospitals in our donation service area.

The Donation & Family Advocate position is a full-time, 40-hour, on-call position. This role requires the employee to be available on nights, weekends and holidays (as agreed upon by the department and the supervisor) to meet organizational needs and ensure proper coverage. 

The primary function of the Donation & Family Advocate is to present the donation option to families, answer questions and inspire them to say yes to donation in a manner that supports Gift of Hope’s mission.

Compensation range for this position is $69,000 - $78,000 annually

Essential Functions

There are four areas of responsibility for a Donation & Family Advocate:  Referral On-sites, Approaches/Authorization, Family Support and Hospital Development. 

The following essential functions are the basic job duties that an employee must be able to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation.

• Advance Gift of Hope's mission, vision and core values:  providing compassionate service, contributing to outstanding teams and engaging as one of our passionate people committed to a positive culture that embraces diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Adhere to all policies and procedures in carrying out the responsibilities of this position.
  
  
• Referral On-sites
• Respond to active organ referrals at hospitals across our service area within established timeframe
• Effectively and efficiently review and document patient’s medical/social information needed to make determination for donation potential in collaboration with Clinical Administrator-on-Call (AOC)
• Evaluate family dynamics and readiness with the assistance of the healthcare team; collaborate with healthcare team to formulate plans that address the needs of the family
• Coordinate and conduct effective Patient Care Conferences (PCC) with healthcare team and service lines involved in care of patient; ensure that Gift of Hope and healthcare team are aligned in goals of care and needs for family support
• Collaborate with healthcare team to facilitate necessary testing and services needed to determine potential for donation
  
  
• Approaches/Authorization
• Collaborate with hospital and healthcare team to provide potential donor families with accurate and timely information regarding the patient’s clinical course
• Maintain communication with hospital staff and attending physician regarding the potential donor family’s understanding of the prognosis and act as a family advocate to the healthcare team as necessary
• Communicate with the attending physician and other members of the healthcare team to establish rapport and ensure a collaborative planned approach for the donation discussion and authorization process
• Determine family’s level of understanding with prognosis and what needs they may have in order to make appropriate decisions about organ/tissue donation in collaboration with Family Resource
• Compassionately advocate for donation by providing information about the benefits of donation
• Offer donation to family in an empowering and inspiring manner. Educate potential donor’s next-of-kin about donation options, status of donor designation, or request authorization for donation
• Properly utilize forms or documents needed to capture donation authorization decision
• Family Support
• Provide patient, respectful and compassionate care for donor families
• Provide donor families appropriate clinical support before and throughout the donation process
• Provide donor families timely follow-up information regarding outcome throughout the case and post-op, in collaboration with Donor Family Services department
  
  
• Hospital Development
• Establish and maintain professional relationships with hospital staff
• Provide education to involved healthcare team while involved in referrals, where needed
• Conduct rounding in hospital units when assigned
• Attend internal and external hospital debriefs
• Provide education to hospital staff regarding authorization, family care, and the donation process

Education and Training Required

The following identifies the minimum education and training required to perform the essential functions of the job:

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in an allied healthcare field, business administration, education, advocacy, or related field; or equivalent work experience

Experience and Skills Required

The following indicates the minimum skills and experience required to perform the essential functions of the job:

• 3-5 years of healthcare experience, counseling, case management, advocacy, or child welfare preferred with a focus on outcome driven conversations, strategic planning, opportunities for impact, family dynamics and/or assessing high stress/emotional situations
  
  
• Proven experience in showing comfort and confidence in the presence of emotional distress, dying and death
  
  
• Proven experience in interpreting verbal and non-verbal communication; demonstrating situational awareness, compassion and empathetic listening skills
• Proven experience effectively advocating, collaborating and negotiating with healthcare professionals to solve complex problems
  
  
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to connect and influence others
  
  
• Proven experience demonstrating assertive responsiveness to changing clinical and social/emotional dynamics, and to driving process
  
  
• Proven experience in responding to changing needs; prioritizing effectively, and communicating effectively and constructively during times of stress
• Proven experience in demonstrating a high level of accountability with internal and external partners
  
  
• Proven experience in working in a hospital environment, particularly emergency departments, critical care units, and intensive care units
  
  
• Proven experience in effectively conveying information to co-workers, hospital staff, and potential donor families
  
  
• Basic computer skills

Physical and Emotional Demands

The physical and emotional demands described here are representative of those that must be met to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job.

• Ability to travel to hospitals across our service area, as well as to Itasca office for meetings and trainings weekly, on off-call days, as needed
  
  
• Ability to work outside normal business hours to respond to case issues or problems
• Ability to review potential donor medical charts
  
  
• Ability to remain stationary for long periods of time
  
  
• Comfortable being present at the time of death in the ICU and operating room setting
  
  
• Ability to use personal cell phone for business purposes

Work Environment

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that will be encountered by an employee while performing the essential functions of the job.

• On-call schedule of designated 12-hour days (7AM-7PM) that includes some assigned weekends and some holidays; may also include unplanned overtime, as needed
• Expectations to utilize a personal cell phone to be accessible outside regular business hours; monthly cell phone stipend available
• Access to reliable transportation to travel to multiple locations in one day within Illinois and northwest Indiana

The policy of Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donor Network is to promote equal employment opportunity through a positive and continuous program of specific practices designed to ensure the full realization of equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, or status as a disabled veteran, recently separated veteran, other protected veteran, or Armed Forces service medal veteran designated under the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act, as amended (VEVRAA).  This reaffirms our commitment to this policy.