Obstacles to corneal donation amongst hospice inpatients: A questionnaire survey of multi-disciplinary team member’s attitudes, knowledge, practice and experience

Abstract

Despite positive staff attitudes towards corneal donation, many barriers to discussing donation were identified, which may reduce donation rates. This could be improved by local policies encompassing further education, prompts in documentation and availability of leaflets.

An analysis of knowledge and attitudes of hospice staff towards organ and tissue donation

“…Most staff felt that any discussion on the subject is best placed when the patient was well. Most also felt that discussions were likely to make patients and relatives feel uncomfortable, echoing the findings of a previous study 15. Staff members who had discussed donation with patients had more years of hospice experience and were more likely to have discussed donation of their own organs with their family.…”

“…Other work suggests that 10% of staff willing to donate their organs are not willing to donate their corneas 15. Similarly, we cannot be certain that reported discussions with patients always took place in palliative care settings, as staff may have referred to previous work in different care contexts.…”

Responding to the public’s voice: changing cornea donation practice in a hospice

“…However for many patients cornea donation is an option because of fewer eligibility restrictions. Often patients, those important to them (here after referred to as ‘families’) and staff are not well informed, or staff do not feel confident or skilled to discuss cornea donation 1. Providing both eyes are retrieved and are cleared for release, one donation can enable two people to have their sight restored through cornea transplant.…”

Implementation Intentions as a Strategy to Increase the Notification Rate of Potential Ocular Tissue Donors by Nurses: A Clustered Randomized Trial in Hospital Settings

“…Despite donation promotion campaigns, the number of donated ocular tissues is still lower than the demand. For instance, in the United Kingdom, 2000 to 3000 cornea transplantations are performed per year, but additional 500 corneas would have been needed [1, 5]. Similarly, in France 4500 corneas are grafted per year, but approximately 7500 persons are still awaiting transplantation [4].…”

“…Thus, part of the tissue shortage might be attributable to a lack of notification of potential donors by health professionals (nurses and physicians) [8–10], despite their favourable attitudes and intentions towards organ and tissue donation [5, 11–18]. The role of health professionals regarding organ and tissue donation process is to identify potential donors, to seek consent for organ and tissue donation, to approach patient's next-of-kin, and to notify donation stakeholders [19] such as organ procurement organizations (OPO), OPO specialists, or tissue banks.…”