Nevada Donor Network sought a partnership with a workforce development and training organization to improve the soft skills of their team members — particularly in the areas of communication skills, influencing, and overall professionalism.
Stakeholder interviews and job shadowing enabled the Janek team to fully comprehend Nevada Donor Network’s mission and facilitated the design and delivery of a customized and holistic training workshop.
About Nevada Donor Network
Nevada Donor Network is the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that oversees organ, eye, and tissue donations for the majority of the state of Nevada, maximizing the gift of life to many Nevadans who hope for a life-saving donation.
Nevada Donor Network enables life-saving organ transplants and life-changing joint repairs, skin grafts, and dental work. The organization’s three major divisions are Family Services (which works with the families of donors and potential donors), Hospital Services (which is responsible for building and fostering relationships with hospital staff), and Clinical Services (which works with hospitals and medical practitioners).
The Challenge
Nevada Donor Network wanted to enhance the soft skills of all three of their divisions. For the Family Services division, the organization sought improvement in clinical conversation ability. Hospital Services needed to improve how they engaged in difficult conversations with nurses, physicians, and administrators. Clinical Services, meanwhile, required conversational and relationship-building skills.
Traditionally, organ procurement organizations (OPO) have all used the same training providers. Nevada Donor Network sought to think outside the box, conducting a nationwide search for a vendor who would engage in a genuine partnership.
The Solution
Janek engaged in an all-encompassing discovery process to dive deep into the donation framework and gain an understanding of Nevada Donor Network’s existing model, challenges, and processes. This discovery process involved stakeholder interviews, job shadowing, and other methods of information collection.
Once discovery was complete, Janek determined that the best option was to conduct a series of customized, instructor-led Critical Communication Skills workshops, reinforced by management coaching and Janek’s Xpert online learning reinforcement technology.
The Results
When Nevada Donor Network began the search process, their authorization rate was 67%. They set a post-training goal of 72% authorization. As of late May 2019, that goal was not only reached, but exceeded, with 73% authorization. This improvement has resulted in a 31% donor increase — directly translating into an additional 45 lives saved in the state of Nevada.
Organ donation organizations have industry-specific metrics they track to determine how well they’re performing their mission. The following metrics increased as a direct result of the training initiative:
| Metric | Post-Training Increase |
|---|---|
| Authorization Rate | 6% |
| Overall Number of Donors | 31% |
| Organ Donors per Numbers of Deaths | 17% |
Prior to working with Janek, Nevada Donor Network ranked first in the U.S. in organ donors per number of deaths. In addition to maintaining that ranking, Nevada Donor Network now also ranks first in the world in donors per million population, organs transplanted per million population, donors per number of deaths, and organs transplanted per number of deaths.
Post-Training Results
972
%
83
%
91
%
