Improving Deceased Organ Donation in Lebanon: Opinion of the Healthcare Professionals.

Abstract

Introduction Despite three years of continuous efforts, Lebanon still suffers from a very low deceased organ donation rate (2.5 deceased donors per M Inhabitants, in 2012). Method A series of refresher seminars were conducted for 9 hospitals involved in the organ procurement effort launched by NOOTDT-Lb in 2010. At the end of each seminar the healthcare professionals in attendance were asked to fill out a survey that included questions on the reasons for the low deceased organ donation rate in Lebanon as well as ideas for its improvement. Results Two hundred and twenty-eight (228) healthcare professionals completed the survey. Most of them (72.9%) associated the low donation rate to the family's refusal to donate the organs of a deceased relative. Approximately half the health professionals (52.3%) attributed the low rate to insufficient awareness campaigns while 30.4% considered it to be due to the indifference of the medical community. When asked what would improve this rate, 63.8% endorsed including organ donation in the school curriculum while 49.8% thought increasing awareness was necessary. Around 62% of the respondents understood the importance of collaborating with NOOTDT-Lb through a timely declaration of all potential brain death donors. In the professionals' opinion, the best way to improve personal performance was through seminars and conferences (27.3%) while the best method in which NOOTDT-Lb could help would be through the collaboration with the hospital coordinators (15.9%). Conclusion Education, awareness and collaboration seem to be the focus of most of the suggestions for improvement provided by health care professionals involved in the process of organ donation in Lebanon. These results have enabled NOOTDT-Lb to propose and develop strategies to improve the rate of organ donation namely, including organ donation in the hospital accreditation and in the curriculum of all medical and nursing schools.