Training of Health Care Students and Professionals: A Pivotal Element in the Process of Optimal Organ Donation Awareness and Professionalization

ObjectiveSuccesses in organ donation and transplantation programs are directly evidence-based education. Transplant Procurement Management (TPM) is an international educational project on organ donation and transplantation. Our purpose was to evaluate the TPM educational project. We compared the data of 17 years of experience, strategies, and methods.Materials and MethodsWe retrospectively performed a descriptive analysis of all educational activities developed between 1991 and 2008.ResultsWe identified 7 crucial points. (1) In 1991, TPM was started under the auspices of the University of Barcelona (UB) and the National Spanish Transplant Organization (ONT; national training, face-to-face). (2) In 1994, TPM became international (international advanced training and country-based). (3) Since 1997 in Italy and 2006 in France, national training courses were organized adapting the same methodologies as the advanced international TPM courses. TPM also implemented short (1–3 days) introductory courses worldwide. (4) In 2002, the e-learning platform program was launched to facilitate the education of professionals. (5) In 2005, an international master's degree was created at UB under the Life-Long Learning Institute (IL3). (6) In 2006, the courses were expanded to include pregraduate health science faculties with the International Project on Education and Research in Donation at University of Barcelona (PIERDUB). (7) In 2007, the European-funded European Training Program on Organ Donation (ETPOD) project was started. Currently, TPM offers face-to-face, e-learning, and blended international courses. As of 2008, TPM has trained 6498 professionals in 89 countries on 5 continents.ConclusionsTPM has impacted positively on the various essential levels in the process of organ donation and transplantation, with lifelong follow-up and an international network through the capacity to adapt to specific country needs as well as continuous quality improvement thanks to the collaboration of expert teachers and consultants.