Nurses' 'lack of trust in diagnosis' presents barrier to organ donation

A survey of Swedish intensive care unit nurses has uncovered attitudes which present barriers to organ donation.

A questionnaire was sent to half of ICU nurses in the country, with 69% of them responding.

Less than half of nurses trusted clinical diagnoses of brain death without a confirmatory cerebral angiography, while 25% of respondents indicated that mechanical ventilation was withdrawn without the issue of organ donation being raised.

Meanwhile, 39% had experienced occasions where the issue of organ donation had never been raised with relatives.

Flodén, A., Persson, L.-O., Rizell, M., Sanner, M. and Forsberg, A. (2011), Attitudes to organ donation among Swedish ICU nurses. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 20: 3183–3195. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2011.03756.x