Health care professional attitudes toward donation: effect on practice and procurement

Failure to procure organs, tissues, and corneas for transplantation can be attributed to a number of factors. The existing literature is largely speculative concerning why health care professionals (HCPs) fail to approach the families of medically suitable donors and why requests for donation are not successful. This study is based on the direct examination of 1,797 HCP attitudes and knowledge about donation in conjunction with how HCPs performed when faced with a donor-eligible patient. HCP attitudes, rather than knowledge, are more important to the successful procurement of organs. The HCPs with more positive attitudes about donation and their role in the procurement process were more likely to request donation. HCPs were more successful in obtaining consent to donation when they believed that the donation process would benefit the donor family and that their efforts to procure organs would be successful. These results indicate that educating HCPs about the donation process to make them more comfortable with it is crucial.