Nursing attitudes towards organ donation, procurement, and transplantation

This survey was carried out to examine the attitudes of nurses towards organ donation, transplantation, and procurement from the perspective of their nursing unit affiliation in a tertiary care center. Overall, 62 % of nurses have already signed an organ donor card or driver's license. Those nurses willing to donate, compared with those not willing to donate, perceive renal transplants as cost effective (90 % vs 38 %, p < 0.001) and successful (66 % vs 47 %, p < 0.001, for estimated cadaver 1 year success rate). Nurses from some units (i.e., renal dialysis nurses), perceiving renal transplantation as being cost effective and successful, were more likely to personally report signing organ donor cards or driver's license. On the other hand, nurses from other units (i.e., the operating room) perceiving lower cost effectiveness and lower renal transplant success rates were, as a group, significantly less likely to sign organ donor cards or driver's license. Across the nursing units surveyed, both perceived transplant success and support for procurement correlated with the percent of nurses who have already signed organ donor cards/license (r = 0.94, p < 0.02). We suspect that the nursing environment and the exposure to follow-up information on transplantation greatly influences personal attitudes towards donation. Efforts must be directed from the medical staff and within nursing to correct these shortcomings in order that all units may participate fully in the procurement-transplantation process.