Welcome to the course Supporting coherence and adaptation after transplantation 

The foundation of rehabilitation after solid organ transplantation is that a life that is saved should also be lived. Person-centred care is the basic approach in the team-based follow-up. Communication and interpersonal interactions between health care professionals (HCPs) and the organ recipient are cornerstones in the life-long follow-up after transplantation. The aim is to support patient empowerment and a constructive adaptation to the life as a transplant recipient.  As a person you adapt to transplantation by means of an active process in collaboration with the professional team. 

HCPs act as structure providers while promoting coherence and supporting adaptation. To support coherence, it is vital to understand that comprehensibility is a motion primarily occurring as a learning process of sense-making, i.e., understanding cause and effect, and how and why one’s health condition is affected. The process of sense-making includes various learning strategies which the HCP can identify and support. Comprehensibility as a state of being means understanding the demands of being a person with a transplanted organ. It also means actively paying attention to one’s body through self-monitoring and evaluating various trial and error experiences. A barrier to comprehensibility is uncertainty and thus something to assess and relieve. 

Adaptation support is an advocative, interpersonal, and context-specific process. It can be both emotional and instrumental. Emotional support consists of comforting gestures intended to alleviate uncertainty, anxiety, stress, hopelessness, and depression. Physical presence is not always required. Digital encounters also work. Patients might feel supported simply when HCPs phone to check up on them.  

Adaptation support includes normalising situations by diverting attention from the problems at hand. Support is appreciated when it strengthens the process of adjustment to a normal life. Instrumental support involves providing tools for managing daily occupations.  Adaptation support includes exchange of information. The information consists of facts, advice, words of reassurance, positive affirmation, empathy, or similar expressions of support. The support process is dynamic and changes in response to challenging circumstances such as setbacks and complications along the transplant trajectory. Structure providers by means of HCPs must be reliable, available, and willing to provide help at challenging times. This course provides essentials on how to interact with transplant recipients through communication in order to support coherence and adaptation after transplantation.

Learning objectives:

After finalising this module, participants will be able to:

Programme