Org & Tissue Don Support Spec

J  o  b    D  e  s  c  r  i  p  t  i  o  n

JOB INFORMATION

Effective Date:

6/30/2026

Entity:

Wisconsin

Job Code:

850006

Job Title:

Org & Tissue Don Support Spec

FLSA Exemption Status:

Exempt

Management Level:

Individual Contributor

JOB SUMMARY

Under the general direction of the Clinical and Donor Family Services Manager, the Donation Support Specialist (DSS) supports referring hospital staff and potential donor families around the consent conversation and provides quality donor family services.  Throughout the UW Organ and Tissue Donation (UW OTD) service area, the DSS responsibility is coordinating and preparing, in collaboration with all appropriate members of the care team (both hospital and UW OTD), an optimal plan for an effective consent conversation and contributing to the Donor Family Services (DFS) programs.  The DSS will act as either the primary Designated Requestor (DR) or in partnership with a hospital DR, to facilitate the consent conversation with a patient's family, presenting them with the donation opportunity, supporting them emotionally and answering donation process questions.  All pre-planning and real-time consent conversations are conducted in a respectful and sensitive manner, reflecting consideration for appropriate timing, sensitivity to cultural and religious backgrounds and interpersonal dynamics to ensure the needs of the family are met while advocating for potential recipients in need of life-saving or life-enhancing transplants.  The DSS provides expertise in long term grief support and actively contributes to the DFS program. The DSS embraces a practice philosophy that supports maximizing authorization opportunities to provide organs and tissues for transplantation and continual compassionate care for donor families. The DSS partners closely with the UW OTD Organ Procurement Coordinator (OPC), UW OTD Administrator On-Call (AOC) and referring hospital care team to identify and remove barriers related to donation opportunities.

Additionally, the DSS are expected to support and be accountable to maintaining ongoing donor family care through the DFS program. This includes providing assistance and support to improve social and psychological functioning of grieving families.

The DSS are expected to participate in and/or lead: program development related to consent and end-of-life issues and services, training and education, after action reviews (AAR), UW OTD all-staff and team meetings, hospital development activities, quality improvement projects, the Doug Miller Symposium, data analysis and evaluation, and other activities deemed a priority by UW OTD leadership.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES

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Collaborates (either via text, call, or in person) with the Organ Procurement Coordinator (OPC) and Administrator On-Call (AOC) to respond to donation referrals and family support needs.

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Participates in shift hand-off communication with OPC and DSS team.

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Maintains necessary access to hospital medical record systems and conducts usage appropriately.

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Reviews medical records as appropriate to adequately anticipate any deployment activity.

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In collaboration with referring hospital and UW OTD care team, evaluates family dynamics, assesses family understanding of patient’s clinical status, and makes a plan for family interactions.

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Works with the referring hospital and UW OTD care team to ensure that the consent conversation occurs at an appropriate time in terms of family readiness while preserving the opportunity for transplantable organs.

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Leads or assists in the completion of any donation consent conversation and subsequent forms.

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In collaboration with the health care team, keeps family informed (as appropriate or requested) regarding the donation and allocation process. Provides on-site emotional support for families as appropriate; as needed, assists with identifying other support systems in collaboration with the referring hospital and UW OTD care team.

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Maintains continuous communication with health care team throughout time onsite.

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Transitions family and referring hospital care team to OPC as primary point of contact at appropriate time, ensuring all are aware of the plan and their resources moving forward.

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Readily builds and maintains professional relationships with referring hospital staff and the national network of Organ Procurement Organizations.

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Participates in DFS after care programs and correspondence programs to support the continuum of care provided to families.

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Stays current with authorization and end-of-life best practices and issues through participation in continuing education; applies best practices real-time.

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Participates in UW OTD and/or referring hospital performance improvement activities.

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Provides referring hospital and UW OTD staff training and orientation related to consent conversations and end-of-life services (i.e. Designated Requestor Trainings and Consent Workshops)

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Serves in an advisory capacity to UW OTD leadership for strategic planning and decisions.

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Actively promotes donation and works to sign up residents on the registry to legalize donation decisions.

As needed, additional responsibilities reasonably within the scope of duties and physical requirements may be assigned.  ALL DUTIES AND REQUIREMENTS MUST BE PERFORMED CONSISTENT WITH THE UW HEALTH PERFORMANCE STANDARDS AND RESPECT FOR PEOPLE COMMITTMENTS.

X

Clinical

Will provide all patients age and culturally appropriate assessment/screening and interpretation of clinical and laboratory data. Develops and implements age appropriate interventional plans of care including education within the parameters of their position responsibilities and licensure

JOB REQUIREMENTS

Bachelor's Degree

with focus on communication, human behavior, and social experience, such as, Counseling, Social Work, Social Science, Chaplaincy, Psychology, Education or other relevant fields

Required

Relevant experience may be considered in lieu of education

Master's Degree

Preferred

2 years

of experience in family support experience such as counseling, social work, hospice, palliative care, or education

Required

Experience with organ donation, transplantation or work within a health-care related field (organ procurement organization, transplant, critical care, hospice)

Preferred

Experience with grief support

Preferred

Must possess a current, valid driver’s license issued by the individual’s state of residence.

Upon Hire

Required

Must be at least 21 years old or have a minimum of three (3) years of driving experience to operate a Personal Vehicle, Patient/Visitor Vehicle, or standard UW Health Fleet Vehicle. ​

Upon Hire

Required

LICENSE, CERTIFICATIONS, AND REGISTRATIONS MUST BE MAINTAINED PER UW HEALTH POLICY. 

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Communication skills must include deescalating intense situations, demonstrating compassion, explaining highly technical processes simply, and active listening

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Ability to communicate effectively with a broad array of families at different emotional stages, ethnicities, socioeconomic statuses, and educational backgrounds

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Ability to engage in productive dialogue with various hospital staff, including nurses, physicians, and senior executive staff

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Ability to effectively cope in high stress situations

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Ability to be responsible, autonomous, flexible, sensitive and compassionate

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Ability to learn and understand medical terminology

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Ability to be awake and of service for 24 hours at a time

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Ability to depart to referring hospital within 30 minutes of request to deploy

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Capable of driving to any referring hospital.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS/WORKING CONDITIONS

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Sedentary: Sedentary work involves lifting no more than 10 pounds at a time and occasionally lifting or carrying articles like docket files, ledgers, and small tools. Although a sedentary job is defined as one which involves sitting, a certain amount of walking and standing is often necessary in carrying out job duties. Jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required occasionally and other sedentary criteria are met.

Up to 10#

Negligible

Negligible

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Light: Light work involves lifting no more than 20 pounds at a time with frequent lifting or carrying of objects weighing up to 10 pounds. Even though the weight lifted may be very little, a job is in this category when it requires a good deal of walking or standing, or when it involves sitting most of the time with some pushing and pulling of arm or leg controls. To be considered capable of performing a full or wide range of light work, you must have the ability to do substantially all of these activities. If someone can do light work, we determine that they can also do sedentary work, unless there are additional limiting factors such as loss of fine dexterity or inability to sit for long periods of time.

up to 20#

Up to 10# or requires significant walking or standing or requires pushing/pulling of arm/leg controls.

Negligible or constant push/pull of items of negligible weight

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Medium: Medium work involves lifting no more than 50 pounds at a time with frequent lifting or carrying of objects weighing up to 25 pounds. If someone can do medium work, we determine that they can also do sedentary and light work.

20-50#

10-25#

Negligible-10#

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Heavy: Heavy work involves lifting no more than 100 pounds at a time with frequent lifting or carrying of objects weighing up to 50 pounds. If someone can do heavy work, we determine that they can also do medium, light, and sedentary work.

50-100#

25-50#

10-20#

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Very Heavy: Very heavy work involves lifting objects weighing more than 100 pounds at a time with frequent lifting or carrying of objects weighing 50 pounds or more. If someone can do very heavy work, we determine that they can also do heavy, medium, light, and sedentary work.

Over 100#

Over 50#

Over 20#

Other - list any other physical requirements or bona fide occupational qualifications not indicated above:

Over 50 lbs.

UW Health does not require, nor does it expect that its employees lift more than 50 lbs unassisted. Objects in excess of 50 lbs should be lifted or moved with mechanical means or through a team lift. Employees in patient care areas are expected to utilize mechanical lifts and adhere to the "Use of Mechanical Lifts (Liko)" policy in the Patient Services Policy and Procedure Manual.

Note: The purpose of this document is to describe the general nature and level of work performed by personnel so classified; it is not intended to serve as an inclusive list of all responsibilities associated with this position.

THE EMPLOYEE MUST BE ABLE TO COMPLETE ALL PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS OF THE JOB WITH OR WITHOUT AN APPROVED ACCOMODATION. Note: The purpose of this document is to describe the general nature and level of work performed by personnel so classified; it is not intended to serve as an inclusive list of all responsibilities associated with this position.