Organ procurement: should we teach undergraduate medical and nursing students?

Organ procurement and transplant improve health outcomes among patients with organ failure. Although many strategies have been developed to overcome the organ shortage, the worldwide rates of organ donation remain suboptimal. The lack of commitment to the health care mission of organ donation and the limited expertise of health care professionals reflect 2 major barriers to organ procurement and raise the need to teach organ procurement to health care professionals early during their undergraduate education. To accommodate the various available curricular models and to develop a homogeneous and equitable teaching methodology irrespective of the adopted design, an early step is to set clear goals and objectives for an organ procurement program. Outcomes should be matched to different academic levels and tailored to the duration of each medical and nursing curriculum. In all cases, hands-on experience leads to a better understanding of the topic, especially with the advent of simulation techniques that may be useful for training as well as testing purposes. An effective program finally requires that attainment of objectives and outcomes are systematically tested using proper evaluation tools that adequately pair with the curricular design. In conclusion, organ procurement teaching should adopt a systematic evidence-based approach that simultaneously contributes to medical and nursing education and improves organ donation rates.