Nurses' responses to organ procurement from nonheartbeating cadaver donors

Brain-dead donors (ie, heartbeating cadaver donors) have been an accepted source of transplantable organs for many years. Clinicians in some medical centers are considering nonheartbeating cadaver donors (ie, patients who decide to discontinue life-support measures and become organ donors) as another source of transplantable organs. This study explored registered nurses' responses to caring for nonheartbeating cadaver donors and described their intentions to care for such donors, their reactions to caring for them, and the meaning of these reactions and intentions. The nurses interviewed expressed resentment at the intrusion of technology; they preferred brain-dead status in organ donors; they feared legal repercussions from families; they speculated about nonheartbeating cadaver donors' ability to feel pain, and they expressed concern about withdrawing life-support measures, honoring patients' wishes, allocating nursing care as a scare resource, and witnessing family members' pain.