Separate, dedicated care teams for living organ donors

Living donation is an increasingly common option offered to patients in most transplant programs. Staff involved in the education, assessment, and care of this patient group is faced with increasingly complicated assessments both medically and psychologically. Supporting arguments for dedicated care teams for living organ donors include the large number of transplantations performed using living donors, the continued need to promote living organ donation, and the growing complexity of both medical and psychological factors in donor assessments. In addition, there is a need to implement the standards proposed by the 2000 Consensus Group, as well as to develop a body of evidence-based research related both to short- and long-term issues for this patient group. The ethical issues related to simultaneous involvement with both donors and recipients, and a need to ensure confidentiality are additional supporting arguments for the need to provide separate care providers for donors and recipients.