LifeSource Update Throughout this past year, Melinda and I have collaborated with funeral director partners in our region, industry leaders, embalmers, and donor agencies across the United States to gain further knowledge, and how we can better serve our funeral director partners. We also have had several opportunities in which to participate and present at educational events regarding the care of donors after the gifts of organ, tissue, and/or eye donation has been completed. The first opportunity was in March for a national based online seminar for the American Association of Tissue Banks. This presentation was for those who work in the field of donation. The occasion allowed us to discuss the importance of collaborating with funeral director partners through the recovery process, what recovery agencies can do to improve communication practices with those in funeral service, embalming techniques and products, reconstruction of the donor, and beyond; all while honoring the family’s decision. Through this seminar, we had the possibility of highlighting the work of our funeral service partners and the challenges that recovery may add to their work. This seminar sparked important dialogue between many recovery agencies and their funeral home partners; how to work together to better meet their funeral director’s needs. Sharing the perspective from funeral directors was important for us to highlight in this forum. From this presentation another educational opportunity arose. Melinda and I were invited to partner with the Wisconsin Lions Eye Bank, NFDA, ATSF (a tissue recovery agency, whom you may know as they work out of HCME), and Versiti (the Wisconsin organ recovery agency). This was an intensive day of education with funeral directors licensed in Wisconsin, a couple Minnesota licensees who hold dual licenses were present as well. This event featured in person demonstrations of techniques related to embalming and reconstruction following donation. This session was video recorded so we may utilize segments of this for future
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education with our partners. We then participated in a NFDA hosted seminar at the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science on the care of donors. We were able to connect with funeral service colleagues who practice across the country to discuss recovery agencies, and what they like and do not like about those organizations. We spoke with industry professionals to gain further insight to techniques, and products to utilize, a few of which, we had not known previously. We wanted to gain this further knowledge to assist our partners to the best of our abilities.
have had with partners in our area and what Melinda, and I could do to improve processes through Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and the three counties in western Wisconsin which we represent.
As this year is coming to a close, we wanted to reconfirm that we are happy to provide CEU’s for education in the category of body preparation to you. We have several education sessions scheduled and if interest continues, we will be happy to create a few more as well. Feel free to reach out to us to share your interest and discuss availability.
Kelley Romanowski and Melinda Van Waus at the NFDA Convention The National Funeral Director’s Convention in Nashville, TN this year was another notable opportunity in which to speak on an international platform about donation and funeral service. We highlighted best practices and our funeral service partners. We spoke to the importance of connecting with the practitioners in your region and providing them support, and best practices for embalming and reconstructing a donor. We were honored to assist funeral directors across the country by facilitating conversations with recovery agencies to begin to improve processes. Much of this work is based on conversations we
With the opportunities to connect with colleagues around the country this year, we also want to connect with colleagues in our area. We heard many great suggestions, comments and techniques over this year and we welcome those interactions with you as well. This has been a great opportunity and we welcome your voices to be heard in donation. Our annual meeting with MFDA is just around the corner, and we are thankful we can work together and discuss improvement in processes. We are happy to come onsite (time permitting to share new techniques with you regarding embalming and/ or reconstructing a donor, have a face time consultation, or phone discussion). Please reach out to us. Kelley Romanowski Kromanowski@life-source.org 612.322.4303 Melinda Van Waus MVanWaus@life-source.org 651.442.0056
