Providing Social Support in a Persuasive Context: Forms of Social Support Reported by Organ Procurement Coordinators

Abstract

Eighty-five organ procurement coordinators (OPCs) completed face-to-face interviews designed to elicit the emotional and instrumental social support strategies communicated to potential donor families throughout the request for deceased organ donation. OPCs identified six forms of emotional support and eight forms of instrumental support, with greater reported use of instrumental support strategies. In terms of instrumental support, OPCs most frequently ensured in-hospital comfort (61.2%) or met the nutritional needs of family members (51.8%). With respect to emotional support, OPCs most often expressed sympathy (31.8%) to families and provided support in the form of physical contact (27.1%) with family members. Identifying the forms of social support used by OPCs is a first step toward understanding the strategies that are more (or less) effective in achieving persuasive and support goals.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors acknowledge the participation of Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency, Center for Donation and Transplant, Finger Lakes Donor Recovery Network, Indiana Organ Procurement Organization, LifeCenter Organ Donor Network, LifeSharing, Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency, Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency, Translife, Upstate New York Transplant Services, Wisconsin Donor Network, and five other organ procurement organizations for contributing their experiences and knowledge to the current project.

Notes

¹The term “organ procurement coordinator” is utilized throughout this article to describe individuals whose sole responsibility is to request familial consent to organ donation. It is recognized that organ procurement organizations utilize a number of terms to describe this position (e.g., family advocate, requestor).

²Although Heany and Israel (2002) have considered alternate forms of support (e.g., esteem, informational), OPCs in the current study were only queried about emotional and instrumental forms of support. Alternate papers by the authors describe a number of messages communicated to potential donor families by OPCs—some of which may rightfully be categorized as informational support (see Anker & Feeley, 2010; 2011a; 2011b). The authors emphasize that the critical contribution of the current study is at the strategy level, with the creation of a list of those things that OPCs are saying and doing to communicate value to potential donor families.

³OPCs are employed by 58 OPOs across the United States. OPOs are responsible for tasks such as the clinical procurement of donated organs, facilitation of the donation request, provision of public education on donation, and development of pro-donation relationships with hospitals in their service area (AOPO, 2011). Anecdotal evidence from the current project suggests the role of OPCs can range from those who specifically request familial consent to donation and complete paperwork documenting a donor's medical–social history, to those who provide services ranging from clinical management of the donor to extensive support services for family members.

⁴Conversion rates are a measure of OPOs’ success at obtaining consent for donation and represent the number of donors obtained from the eligible donor population. Thus, a rate of 63% would suggest that 63 of every 100 eligible deaths both consent to donation and ultimately complete the donation process.

⁵Sample selection was based on analysis of data from the 7/1/2005–6/30/2006 and 7/1/2006–6/30/2007 time periods—the most recent time periods available at the time of recruitment.

⁶The United Network for Organ Sharing divides the country into 11 different regions to facilitate information sharing between organizations involved with organ transplantation (see www.unos.org).

⁷Results pertaining to barriers, persuasive messages, timing/setting of request, and alterations to the request process are reported in another series of papers (Anker & Feeley, 2010; 2011a; 2011b).

⁸Tables listing the categorized forms of emotional and informational support provided by OPCs are available from the author.

⁹At least one OPO in the current study employed staff other than OPCs to support potential donor families. In such OPOs, OPCs may view support as less central to their job.