Episode 13: Families Are The Focus with Betsy Morgan

During this episode of This Thing Called Life, host Andi Johnson speaks with Betsy Morgan, the Donation Support Services Trainer at LifeCenter. Betsy trains members of her team on how to approach families for donation interviews while remaining supportive in their time of need.

Episode Highlights: 

• Betsy began at LifeCenter as a Donation Support Specialist Coordinator back in 2015.
• In her role, Betsy and her team approach and support families during the organ donation process.
• Before coming to LifeCenter, Betsy was a nurse manager, something she attributes to her love of helping people.
• Betsy loves her job because she gets to see the good things in life, even though the rest of the world is chaotic.
• Sometimes the right thing to say is to say nothing; just showing support is something that people need.
• You can decide the right thing to say to a donor family based on where they are in their donation journey.
• People just want to be heard sometimes, so it can be as simple as picking up the phone and listening.
• With her previous work experience, Betsy knew about organs but didn’t know there were so many ways to donate.
• As technology and healthcare methods change and move forward, there are more and more ways to help those who need donation.
• The process of interviewing the families is a long and difficult one, but Betsy focuses on all the good that the gifts will do.
• Answering the interview questions can be a very difficult and arduous process but is necessary to ensure safe donations.
• During a past Donor Family Ceremony, Betsy comforted a crying woman that she had actually interviewed over the phone.
• Dealing with death every day is difficult but workers at LifeCenter are given purpose when making connections with families.
• It takes a high level of compassion and belief in the job to comfort people in their time of need.
• Conducting interviews over the phone, due to COVID, makes it more difficult to read emotions.
• Betsy must stay open-minded and understanding when approaching a family, especially over the phone.
• In such an emotionally taxing role, Betsy relies heavily on the support system at LifeCenter.
• Talking about and debriefing on the more difficult cases provides Betsy and her team with a form of relief.
• Teams that feel supported and encouraged tend to feel more confident and do better in their individual roles.
• When coming into such difficult and emotionally heavy conversations, it’s important to remain your authentic self.
• Though donor families will feel very alone, especially during a pandemic, there are always people/organizations out there to support them.
• Finding people that can relate to the process or pain can be a great way for grievers to find an outlet.
• Betsy made it her goal this year to simplify life and find the good amongst the sea of bad.

3 Key Points:

1. In a world filled with so much negativity and bad things, Betsy loves her job at LifeCenter because she gets to see so much positivity and good.
2. While the interview process is filled with difficult and uncomfortable questions for donor families, it must be completed to ensure that the organs being donated go to the right recipients.
3. COVID has forced Betsy and others in her position to learn how to have these talks over the phone where emotion is harder to translate.

Resources Mentioned:

• LifeCenter (website) (Facebook) (Instagram) (YouTube) (Twitter)
• Andi Johnson (website) (LinkedIn)