Innovative 3D tool to help teach school children about organ donation

TEACHING: Specialist nurses in organ donation with a new 3D interactive torso

School children are to benefit from the latest design innovation to learn about the importance of organ donation in saving lives.

Specialist nurses in organ donation, based at Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital, will use a 3D interactive torso with removable organs including the heart, liver, pancreas and gall bladder, when they tour schools across Hull and the East Riding to explain their work.

The 3D torso, which cost more than £3,000, was funded as part of NHS Blood and Transplant’s mission to promote education and awareness about the importance of organ donation and was created by the design team at Aura Innovation Centre, part of the University of Hull.

Children and young people are set to take centre stage as the main theme of this year’s Organ Donation Week, which will run from Monday, September 20 to Sunday, September 26.

Fay Turner, Specialist Nurse in Organ Donation for Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We’re very grateful to the team at Aura who worked with our specifications to create this fabulous teaching tool to support our education work.

“The teaching tool has arrived in a very timely manner as Organ Donation Week 2021 aims to inspire millions of family conversations and registrations by putting children and young people at the heart of our message.

INNOVATIVE: New organ donation awareness teaching equipment

“It will encourage organ donation conversations across the generations and really press home the ‘leave them certain’ message.”

“Previously, we have had to rely on videos and photographs but our new teaching tool will encourage the students to take out the organs, feel what they’re like and understand how each one functions.

“It will provide students with valuable hands-on learning so they can understand exactly how important our organs are – and, therefore, why we need organ donation to save people’s lives.”

As well as focusing on stories of children who have received or donated organs, Organ Donation Week will shine a national spotlight on the importance of education, with blood, organ and stem cell donation now part of the school PHSE curriculum for young people in Key Stage 3 and 4.

To mark the event, staff at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust who work in the hospital restaurants, post rooms, general offices and reception desks will be wearing bright pink organ donation t-shirts.

Hull City Council’s buildings in Queen Victoria Square will light up pink along with The Deep, St Stephen’s shopping centre and other key landmarks in the city.