AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To present data on Swedish ICU nurses' attitudes to brain death and organ donation and to test a questionnaire designed to explore these issues in terms of validity and reliability. BACKGROUND: Previous studies have identified various barriers to organ donation. The single most important factor was the attitude of ICU staff. DESIGN: A 34-item instrument was developed to explore attitudes and experiences of organ donation. METHOD: The questionnaire was sent to 50% of ICU nurses in Sweden (n = 1013) and the response rate was 69% (n = 702). The expected scale dimensionality was examined both by explorative principal component analysis and confirmatory multi-trait analysis. Scale reliability was further estimated using Cronbach's alpha. Chi-squared test was used to compare proportions between ICU specialities and Pearson correlations were calculated to investigate relationships between each of the factors verified and the single items. RESULTS: The main findings were that less than half of the ICU nurses trusted clinical diagnosis of brain death without a confirmatory cerebral angiography. Twenty-five percent of the respondents indicated that mechanical ventilation was withdrawn to reduce the possible suffering of a person assumed to be clinically dead, without the issue of organ donation being raised. A total of 39% had experienced occasions when the question about organ donation was never raised with the relatives. Four factors were verified and labelled: personal attitudes to organ donation as a situation; Organisational attitudes to organ donation as a phenomenon; Environmental resources; and Personal wish to donate, which accounted for 70% of the variance. CONCLUSIONS: Swedish ICU nurses reported several barriers to organ donation. An action plan including education in brain death diagnostics, interpersonal relationships and interaction with relatives as well as regular follow-up regarding donation issues in various ICU settings would be useful. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: All nurses working in ICUs are obliged to participate in organ donation and are therefore included in these results.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To present data on Swedish ICU nurses' attitudes to brain death and organ donation and to test a questionnaire designed to explore these issues in terms of validity and reliability. BACKGROUND: Previous studies have identified various barriers to organ donation. The single most important factor was the attitude of ICU staff. DESIGN: A 34-item instrument was developed to explore attitudes and experiences of organ donation. METHOD: The questionnaire was sent to 50% of ICU nurses in Sweden (n = 1013) and the response rate was 69% (n = 702). The expected scale dimensionality was examined both by explorative principal component analysis and confirmatory multi-trait analysis. Scale reliability was further estimated using Cronbach's alpha. Chi-squared test was used to compare proportions between ICU specialities and Pearson correlations were calculated to investigate relationships between each of the factors verified and the single items. RESULTS: The main findings were that less than half of the ICU nurses trusted clinical diagnosis of brain death without a confirmatory cerebral angiography. Twenty-five percent of the respondents indicated that mechanical ventilation was withdrawn to reduce the possible suffering of a person assumed to be clinically dead, without the issue of organ donation being raised. A total of 39% had experienced occasions when the question about organ donation was never raised with the relatives. Four factors were verified and labelled: personal attitudes to organ donation as a situation; Organisational attitudes to organ donation as a phenomenon; Environmental resources; and Personal wish to donate, which accounted for 70% of the variance. CONCLUSIONS: Swedish ICU nurses reported several barriers to organ donation. An action plan including education in brain death diagnostics, interpersonal relationships and interaction with relatives as well as regular follow-up regarding donation issues in various ICU settings would be useful. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: All nurses working in ICUs are obliged to participate in organ donation and are therefore included in these results.
Authors: C E Uhlig; R Koch; J Promesberger; G Hirschfeld; H Schmidt; B Seitz; T Reinhard; D Böhringer Journal: Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol Date: 2014-09-20 Impact factor: 3.117
Authors: Vanessa Stadlbauer; Peter Steiner; Martin Schweiger; Michael Sereinigg; Karl-Heinz Tscheliessnigg; Wolfgang Freidl; Philipp Stiegler Journal: BMC Med Ethics Date: 2013-08-16 Impact factor: 2.652
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