World Congress on
Intensive and Critical Care Nursing

Biography:

Abstract:

Assumptions for the study / empirical evidences

Organs and tissues donation is a theme of which we increasingly hear about. Through this work I’ve studied the interview for donation’s request between health professionals and family members of the potential donor, investigating the necessary training, the main causes of refusal and the approach that the staff has towards the donation itself.

I’ve also given a survey to the medical and nursing staff of the Reanimation and Critical Medicine Department and to the staff of the AOUS Coordination of organs and tissues donation and transplant to analyze the level of specific training and motivation.

 

Targets of the study

Through this study, using scientific literature, I proposed to investigate the relationship between the training of health professionals and the interview for the donation proposal. Specifically, if a proper training both of the department’s health professionals and of professionals in charge of conducting the interview for the donation proposal can influence the interview's performance and the possibility of obtaining more consents to donation.

Study population

The medical and nursing staff of the Reanimation and Critical Medicine Department and the staff of the AOUS Coordination of organs and tissues donation and transplan.

Materials and methods

Initially I’ve done a research to describe the process of donation, legislation, kinds of donor and the educational and behavioral requirements of health professionals involved in the interview for the donation request. Then I’ve done a research on PubMed to find a correlation between the qualification achieved by professionals and the effectiveness of the interview, using the following search strings: ("Brain Death" [Mesh]) OR "brain death" OR "brain dead ”OR“ brain deads ”OR (irreversible [tiab] AND coma [tiab])) AND (" Tissue and Organ Harvesting "[Mesh] OR" Organ Transplantation "[Mesh] OR organ donation OR organ transplantation) AND (" Family "[Mesh] OR" Caregivers "[Mesh] OR related * OR family OR caregiver *) AND (" Interviews as Topic "[Mesh] OR interview *) AND (" Nurse's Role "[Mesh] OR" Nursing "[Mesh] OR "nursing" [Subheading] OR nursing [tiab] OR nurse * [tiab]).

I’ve also given a survey to the medical and nursing staff of the Reanimation and Critical Medicine Department and the staff of the AOUS Coordination of organs and tissues donation and transplant, to analyze the levels of proper training in organs and tissues donation and transplantation and the levels of motivation.

Results and discussion

Healthcare staff interviews with the potential donor’s family are certainly one of the most important moments in the donation process.

The relationships established between the two parts are fundamental both for the outcome of the interview and for the process of bereavement’s acceptance by the family.

The relationship between family members and health professionals begins with the hospitalization.

Adequately informed, trained and capable of dialogue health professionals will help the potential donor’s family during the hospitalization and above all will be respectful and aware in conducting interviews regarding the donation proposal.

Specifically, nurses have the possibility to attain a first level Master's degree in "Nursing coordination and transplantation of organs and tissues".

The nurse has a important role in the entire system of transplants, takes actively part in the procedures for organs’ identifying, selecting and transplanting, and in the elaboration and execution of pre and post-transplant care pathways.

Conclusions 

I’ve observed how a properly trained healthcare staff is able to conduct more appropriate, structured and logical interviews with the relatives of the potential donor.

There are fundamental moments that must be faced in each interview, one of the most important is brain death declaration, another one is the request of consent or refusal to donate organs and tissues. From the research on PubMed I noticed how a properly trained staff can conduct a more logical and respectful interview.

The survey given to the healthcare staff shows a relationship between preparation and motivation towards the donation.

Professionals with proper training have a higher consideration of the interview and are in favor of the donation itself, increasing the motivation and the approval towards donation. On the contrary, the lack of a proper training reduces motivation and consideration of the interview, decreasing the consent to donation. Therefore the entire path of donation must be controlled by professionals with continuous and proper training.