Obstacles to organ donation in Swedish intensive care units

Abstract

The identified obstacles (neutral approach of donation request, ethical problems concerning the potential donor and the relatives, varying competence in diagnosing total brain infarction, and lack of intensive care bed resources) require tailored efforts in order to increase organ donation. Checking these factors can be used as a quality control when analysing donation activities at hospitals.

Critical Care staffs’ attitudes, confidence levels and educational needs correlate with countries’ donation rates: data from the Donor Action® database

“…Failures to exploit the potential for organ and tissue donation have been attributed to a number of factors, amongst them being the fact that health care professionals and CC staff in particular have recurrent problems with recognizing a patient as a potential donor, approaching families of medically suitable donors and obtaining consent for donation [11–14].…”

Change of focus: from intensive care towards organ donation

“…There can be psychosocial, organizational and professional barriers to organ donation. Studies show that the staff's level of knowledge and experience influence their confidence in discussions and briefings on organ donation both with their own colleagues and also with relatives/power of attorney for the patient [3,[11][12][13][14][15]. The nurses' requirements for knowledge and understanding of the process of organ donation, definitions of death and various changes that occur in relation to the death processes, as well as the needs of next of kin, have been documented in several studies [5,11,[16][17][18][19][20].…”

“…How to approach the question of organ donation and attitudes towards work with potential donors were discovered as obstacles to organ donation, in a study among Swedish physicians. Sanner suggests that the hospitals should give a higher priority for the organ donation process and that a proactive donor detection programme could be a key to success [15].…”

“…Education about transplantation and donation as well as training in communication skills is required to make the staff confident and experienced in meeting the relatives' need for information. Consent for donation often relies on the relatives' experience when approached with the request for organ donation [15,18,19]. Hospital-based programmes can change the organ donation practice and educational strategies [6].…”

Organdonasjon og norske legers behov for opplæring

“…The doctors' knowledge about organ donation, attitude to it and ability to relate to the potential organ donor and his or her next of kin may be decisive for obtaining consent to an organ donation (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7). A review article published in 2009 (5) showed that specific skills in the person who provides information and inquires, as well as the timing of the inquiry, may have a greater effect on the likelihood that the next of kin will provide consent for an organ donation than legislation and regulations.…”