Shalom’s story

I came into the role of the Specialist Nurse Organ Donation (SNOD) after working in a large trauma centre’s intensive care unit. I was inspired to join the team after seeing some of the other nurses working on the unit.

When I started in January 2018, I joined a cohort of other new SNODs and we embarked on 6 months of training together. It was split between on-the-job training and time away from the clinical area, learning the theory and practicalities behind the job.

Now that I’ve been in the role for just over 4 years, I can honestly say that no day is the same. We work in embedded hospitals, providing teaching and support, along with auditing all potential donors. We also cover a 24/7 on call rota to make sure that there’s always a SNOD available for any donation activity.

When we’re on call, we support the families of patients who are at the end of their life. We offer them the option of organ donation as part of end of life care and discuss their loved one’s decision with them.

If they’re supportive of organ donation, we take them through the process, supporting them every step of the way. We then work to characterise the donor, which means finding out all we can to make the donation as safe as possible for everyone involved.

When recipient matches are found, we organise specialist retrieval teams to come to the hospital to perform the donation operation. We stay with the donor through the whole process, performing last offices and staying with them until they go to the mortuary.

It’s a very unique job, nothing like any other job I’ve ever had, but every day I’m so proud to do it. The families and donors that we support show amazing strength, choosing to help others at the hardest time, and what we do goes a long way to support them during that hard time.