Tissue Recovery Technician

Put your skills to work in a field that profoundly impacts many lives:  Organ and Tissue Donation. 

At Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donor Network, we’re dedicated to coordinating organ and tissue donation in the northern three-quarters of Illinois and NW Indiana. Our goal is to provide the highest  quality service to families and hospitals as we strive to fulfill our mission of saving and enhancing the lives of as many people as possible through organ and tissue donation.

Tissue Recovery Technician uses surgical instruments to recover tissues for transplant from a deceased donor body during a tissue recovery case; precepts new employees and displays respect for the donor during each case.

Experience in an anatomy or cadaver lab is very applicable, as is experience as an EMT, Paramedic, Surgical Tech or Patient Care Tech.

Compensation range is $27.76 - $29.28 / hour

This is a noon to midnight shift. 

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

SHIFT: (12 PM – 12 AM )

• Support Gift of Hope’s mission, vision, and values; adhere to its policies and procedures in carrying out the responsibilities of this position
• Participate in all aspects of tissue recovery, which includes, but is not limited to transporting and prepping/draping of donor; use of surgical instruments in recovery, working in an aseptic environment, performing tissue cultures, and cleaning of room and instrumentation
• 12-hour shifts (Noon to midnight) that require some flexibility at times due to case length
• Shift differential provided
• Total of 7 shifts/2-week rotation, with 2 weekends per month required
• Attendance at organizational and/or department events such as staff meeting and/or training that can sometimes happen outside of regularly scheduled hours

The following identifies the minimum education and training required to perform the essential functions of the job. 

• EMT - P (paramedic) EMT-B,  CST or ORT, or High School Diploma with 6 months tissue banking experience or 18 months of related experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in Biology or related field, with anatomy lab experience 
• Ability to work in in-house and hospital operating room suites
• Ability to drive personal auto to hospitals and other locations to perform job functions
• Ability to work outside normal business hours including nights, weekends and holidays
• Ability to attend monthly staff meetings that may be outside of regularly scheduled working hours
• Ability to walk, stand, bend, stoop, and kneel to perform job functions
• Ability to use personal cell phone to call, page, text to communicate about the status of a case
• Ability to hear and speak to convey information to co-workers
• Ability to stand for up to 6 consecutive hours to complete a case
• Ability to see to conduct donor assessment
• Fine motor skills to package and label recovered tissue
• Ability to arrive at tissue recovery site within 1 hour after being dispatched if not already on-site at a Gift of Hope office

• Ability to move up to 50-75 lbs.

• Ability to move and turn donors of a maximum of 400 lbs. with assistance, and move them from cart to cart, or cart to table

The policy of Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donor Network is to promote equal employment opportunity through a positive and continuous program of specific practices designed to ensure the full realization of equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, or status as a disabled veteran, recently separated veteran, other protected veteran, or Armed Forces service medal veteran designated under the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act, as amended (VEVRAA).  This reaffirms our commitment to this policy.