Beliefs and Attitudes of Nurses Working in Renal Centers Towards Organ Donation and Transplantation

Background: Transplantation, one of the greatest achievements of Medicine, requires organ and tissue donation to be made real. The health professionals’ knowledge and attitudes towards that ultimate form of volunteerism can play an important part in informing, approaching, and raising awareness in the society. Purpose: To investigate the knowledge and attitudes of nurses working in nephrology centers regarding organ donation and transplantation. Material and Method: The study sample consisted of all of the public hospital nurses from the 5th and 6th Health District of Greece, working in hemodialysis and nephrology clinics. Study took place between 01/09/2011-31/10/2011.A questionnaire consisting of 13 closed-type questions was used as an assessment tool for the nurses’ attitudes and knowledge. Questionnaires were administered via mail to nurses. Three hundred nurses responded, response rate 93.5%. Descriptive statistics were performed. Results: Percentage of 98.3% and 73.3% of the nurses reported that they were aware of what constitutes organ donation and brain death, respectively. Also, 80% of them reported that they were aware of the related legislation, but 61.3% of them found it inadequate. Furthermore, percentage of 42% and 45% responded positively to questions regarding family consent in organ donation and to whether they would ever consider becoming donors themselves, respectively. Approximately 20% of the nurses were negative or skeptical towards organ donation. Conclusions: Even though nurses believe that they have sufficient knowledge regarding organ donation, they are rather skeptical, in terms of their personal attitude towards it. Further, more thorough, education of the nurses regarding organ donation is required. Nurses due to their close encounter with the patients, can play an important part in clarifying concepts and basic terminology regarding transplantation, identify potential donors from the community and approach the family to get their consent.