Organ Procurement in Poland: Legal and Medical Aspects

Abstract

Transplantology is one of the fastest growing specialties of medicine. However, data on actual students’ knowledge in this field is lacking. AimAssessing the education of medical students; level of current basic knowledge in the field of medicine, law, and statistics on transplantology in Poland. MethodsSurvey (with 48 questions) conducted among 165 medical students (1st-6th year). The average age was 22 years; 62.0% women. ResultsOnly 29.7% of the respondents are blood donors, 36.4% are registered as a potential bone marrow donor, and 11.8% have the donor card. None of these factors had a clear impact on transplantology knowledge. The respondents obtained a result of 54.9% correct answers (medicine, 58.2%; law, 55.8%; statistic, 39.9%). An increase in the level of knowledge in subsequent years of education can be seen. Students in the first year marked 49.4% correct answers compared to people in the sixth year who marked 62.9% correct. Students base their knowledge about transplantation mainly on messages obtained in class (89.1%). The survey showed that 18.8% of respondents consider the family's consent for organ procurement from their deceased member as legally valid; 27.9% do not treat brain death as synonymous with death; and 9.1% believed that organ trafficking is allowed. Nobody is registered in the Central Register of Objections. ConclusionsDespite the increase in the level of knowledge about transplantation during the study, it does not reach a satisfactory level. The number of sources of knowledge does not correlate with the quality of acquired knowledge.