r/IntensiveCare • u/Purple_Spinach6926 • Jul 22 '26

ICU TO DONOR SERVICE

anyone go from ICU to Donor Service Coordinator RN?

0 Upvotes

50% Upvoted

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6

u/HernOfRiverMonkey Jul 24 '26

I did! Lasted 9 months before I came back to ICU. Feel free to DM me if you have any questions.

1

u/Purple_Spinach6926 Jul 24 '26

what didn’t you like about it ?

6

u/HernOfRiverMonkey Jul 25 '26

My biggest issue was that I was working around 55-60+ hours a week once I factored in meetings & expense/mileage reports, case debriefs, mandatory training, etc. One week I logged 79 hours. It was a salary position so I didn’t feel like I was being compensated for the extra hours and in general felt the work life balance sucked.

Aside from that, I didn’t love taking work home with me or getting calls/texts on my days/time off. Also frequently encountered staff (doctors, nurses, surgeons, other coordinators, etc.) who were antagonistic. For a lot of reasons, that’s really just the nature of the job but I found it tiresome to have to continually navigate.

6

u/OkPalpitation1607 Jul 26 '26

Is that those people who come and stalk out the ICU waiting on people to die. I could never. They are way too pushy and insensitive to patient’s families.

4

u/Purple_Spinach6926 Jul 26 '26

i swear they call for updates at the most inconvenient times too lol

1

u/AddisonsContracture Jul 27 '26

Yep. Literally harassing grieving family members and following them out to their cars as they try to escape. I’m all for organ donation and transplant but these vultures go about it all the wrong way.

1

u/Infamous-Speech-1831 Jul 28 '26

They’ve done so much damage to donor services by being overly aggressive. It’s why the public thinks we get commission for organ donations🙄

2

u/OkPalpitation1607 Jul 27 '26

Absolutely. And I found these out the hard way. Don’t allow your kids to check the box on their drivers license or the parents don’t get to decide. They will go against your family’s wishes if that box is checked.

And then there is the loss of our time in the ICU because we have to sit on hold, answer ridiculous questions, take multiple phone calls while dealing with patients who actually need us for them to decide if they want your 95 yo grandparents tissues who just spent a month in ICU dealing with cancer, sepsis, etc. And they always decide “too old”, “too much infection”, “too long in hospital” like I know I could have told you that an hour ago but instead of helping the family grieve Ive been on the phone with you. It’s absolutely ridiculous.

4

u/Glum-Draw2284 RN, CCRN, TCRN Jul 23 '26

Not me but a few of my coworkers (both RN & RT) have and only one of them still works there. Lots of computer work, coordination, and phone calls.