Surgical Nurses' Views on Organ Transplantation and Donation: A Sample From Turkey

Abstract

AimTo evaluate the opinions and behaviors of nurses working in surgical clinics regarding organ transplantation and donation. MethodThis research study was carried out as a descriptive study. It was carried out on 293 nurses at the Turgut Ozal Medical Center (TOMC) of Malatya İnönü University between September and December 2012. The research population consisted of 348 nurses working at the surgical clinics of TOMC. No sampling strategy was used; nurses who agreed to participate in the study were taken as a sample. During data collection, a questionnaire consisting of 33 questions, including sociodemographic characteristics of the nurses and their opinions about organ transplantation and donation, was used by the researcher. ResultsOnly 9.89% (n = 29) of the nurses were themselves registered as organ donors. The vast majority of the nurses included in the study favored the idea of artists (61.4%), scientists (75.8%), and clergy (70.3%) leading the society to organ transplantation and donation. Of the nurses who participated in the study, 147 (50.2%) thought that they were not sufficiently knowledgeable about organ transplantation and donation during their vocational training, and 210 (71.7%) thought that health professionals were not sufficiently knowledgeable about organ transplantation and donation. ConclusionIt was determined that nurses' organ donations were low level, and they needed to be informed.