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Clinical Practice
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Tissue and Organ Donation

After completing this course, nurses will be able to distinguish organ donation from tissue donation, explain living and deceased donation pathways, and describe current standards for determining death by neurologic or circulatory criteria.

Critical care nurse and organ procurement coordinator reviewing a potential donor’s clinical information beside an intensive care monitor while maintaining patient privacy.
Contact hours
2
Format
Self-paced, online
Last reviewed
Sep 19, 2026

$10.00or included with All-Access

$5 per contact hour · 2 contact hours

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  • No post-test required · unlimited retakes · evaluation and attestation always required

Course Purpose

After completing this course, nurses will be able to distinguish organ donation from tissue donation, explain living and deceased donation pathways, and describe current standards for determining death by neurologic or circulatory criteria.

Continuing Education Credit Designation

This educational activity is credited for 2 contact hours at completion of the activity.

Overview

After completing this course, nurses will be able to distinguish organ donation from tissue donation, explain living and deceased donation pathways, and describe current standards for determining death by neurologic or circulatory criteria. Learners will also be able to recognize a potential donor, make a timely referral to the designated organ procurement organization, support physiologic stability and family needs, and collaborate ethically with the donation and transplantation team.

Objectives

Upon completion of this independent study, the learner will be able to:

  1. Differentiate organs and tissues that may be donated by living and deceased donors.
  2. Explain current clinical standards for determining death by neurologic criteria and death by circulatory criteria.
  3. Describe the nurse’s responsibilities for timely referral, donor evaluation, physiologic support, documentation, and family care.
  4. Outline the controlled donation-after-circulatory-death and organ-recovery processes without using fixed or unsupported time limits.
  5. Apply autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, and separation-of-decisions principles to donation-related scenarios.
  6. Correct common misconceptions about donor eligibility, costs, emergency treatment, religion, age, and medical history.

Policy Statement

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the policies of FastCEForLess.com. This course should be used for informational purposes only and should not be used to diagnose, treat, prescribe, recommend, or initiate therapies or treatments in any setting. This course is copyrighted by Fast CE For Less, Inc. and may not be replicated, copied, or dispersed without written consent.

Disclosures

Fast CE For Less, Inc. and its authors have no disclosures. There is no commercial support.

Who this course is for:

Healthcare professionals who want continuing education on Tissue and Organ Donation.

Course outline

10 sections · finish in any order across devices

  1. 1

    Introduction

  2. 2

    Organ Transplantation

  3. 3

    Living Donors

  4. 4

    Dead Donor Rule

  5. 5

    Brain Dead

  6. 6

    Circulatory Death

  7. 7

    Preparing for Procurement

  8. 8

    Medical Ethics

  9. 9

    Working within the Team

  10. 10

    Conclusion

References

The full reference list is included inside the course, after the Conclusion.

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