Bilingual Senior Bereavement Specialist; Donor Family Specialist

Overview

Develop and maintain relationships with organ, tissue, and donor-in-spirit donor families during and following donation, including providing resources, updates and connection opportunities, along with identifying and remedying post-donation issues, cultivating readiness to share their stories and fortifying lifelong relationship with Gift of Hope. This position will primarily cover a southwest Chicago area, so ideal locations include Naperville, Oswego, Sandwich, Joliet.

Essential Functions

Job Duties

The following essential functions are the basic job duties that an employee must be able to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation:

• Advance Gift of Hope's mission, vision and core values: providing compassionate service, contributing to outstanding teams and engaging as one of our passionate people committed to a positive culture that respects the dignity and worth of each individual. Adhere to all policies and procedures in carrying out the responsibilities of this position.
• Develop and maintain relationships with organ, tissue, and donor-in-spirit donor families in assigned geographical areas
• Manage difficult, potentially emotionally charged, conversations with empathy and compassion
• Counsel and provide familial support during and after the donation process including outcomes post-op
• Support the Organ Donor Care Center
• Arrange and support donor families who come to visit their loved one at the Organ Donor Care Center
• Assure that donor belongings that are brought to the Organ Donor Care Center are returned to the next of kin
• Communicate with donor families whose loved one’s donation process is occurring at the Organ Donor Care Center
• Provide follow up care, answer questions and/or concerns, support family in grief journey
• Communicate donation journey updates to family
• Support donor families during organ donation process, when needed
• Adapt and thrive with shifting priorities, frequent process updates, and evolving objectives. Remain flexible with ambiguity and able to navigate and succeed in a dynamic, ever-changing field
• Analyze and use critical thinking to navigate situations with incomplete or unclear information
• Conduct ongoing bereavement assessment of donor families; provide resources as needed or requested; assess readiness to participate as an Ambassadors for Hope volunteer; identify and offer opportunities to most appropriate donor families
• Investigate and respond to donor family inquiries, compliments, and complaints

• Monitor, maintain, provide content, support and interact with donor families through the virtual Donor Family Support Group and the Donor Family Support Group page on Facebook
• Represent Gift of Hope’s empathetic care by collaborating and cultivating relationships with internal and external partners to facilitate opportunities for supporting donor families & sharing donor family and recipient stories to engage the community and external partners
• Transplant center coordinators: gather recipient information and encourage and facilitate communication
• Hospital Development and Partner Relations: serve as a resource to our hospital and other external partners; connect them with our mission and the donor families they help support by providing both bedside and long-term empathetic care; coordinate donor family events within the hospitals; serve on hospital donation committees where able
• Community Outreach: support community-based initiatives that provide opportunities for engagement and connection for donor families in our communities; collaborate to provide donor families with externally facing opportunities
• Communications: help inspire the public to say yes to donation by spreading the message of our mission through donor family testimonials
• Organ Operations/ Donation Liaisons/Donation & Family Advocates: collaborate with colleagues to ensure donor families are supported during donation process

• Create, plan and execute in-person and virtual events, including donor family/recipient meetings and donor family memory making opportunities, workshops, events, and activities
• Enter clear and complete documentation for every interaction with donor families, hospital staff,…