Joy N. Macdonald, BSN, RN, is a fetal therapy coordinator with the Richard D. Wood Jr. Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment (CFDT) at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
A fetal therapy clinical coordinator is a clinician who guides families throughout their pregnancy and care, and is generally the first point of contact for a patient family who contacts the Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment.
The fetal therapy coordinator team receives referrals, removes barriers to care, and minimizes the wait for a diagnostic evaluation and counseling appointment. We provide verbal, written and online resources, and may connect the patient to families that have had similar experiences. Depending on each patient’s evaluation and diagnosis, our team arranges specific counseling with maternal-fetal medicine specialists, fetal and pediatric surgeons, and other subspecialists as needed. We help guide families throughout their care, from prenatal testing and surveillance through delivery and after a baby is born, working closely with your physicians back home to coordinate ongoing care for both mother and child.
BSN - University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Fetal Therapy Coordinator
Cole JCM, Macdonald JN, Qamar2 H. Leading up to Loss: Understanding the Perinatal Grief Experience for Expectant Fathers when a Life-Limiting Fetal Diagnosis is Confirmed. Archives of Palliative Care and Medicine, 2019 September 30.