Study on the Role of Medical Social Work in Organ Donation after Citizen’s Death / 中国医学伦理学

ABSTRACT

The development of human organ transplantation technology has brought the hope of rebirth to countless patients with organ failure. Human organ donation and transplantation need the joint efforts of various levels of Red Cross societies, human organ procurement organizations, medical institutions, etc. Medical social workers, as new forces, are gradually playing their own role. By summarizing the professional advantages of medical social work in organ donation after citizen’s death, this paper proposed that medical social workers can provide professional services for donors and their families through practical work, such as clarifying their willingness to donate and providing crisis intervention services to their families, assisting them in completing donation matters and holding farewell ceremonies, and following up and carrying out grief counseling activities. Regarding the problems encountered in practice process, suggestions were proposed to expand the scale of medical social workers and improve their management, increase social awareness of medical social work, and provide all-round support for the implementation of later service.