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Stressors experienced by nurses while caring for organ donors and their families
1University of New Brunswick Faculty of Nursing, Fredericton, Canada.
Objectives:
To identify the stressors experienced by nurses who care for organ donors and their families.
Design:
Retrospective, exploratory, descriptive.
Setting:
Eastern Canada.
Participants:
Seventeen nurses who worked in a neurologic intensive care unit were interviewed. All had provided care to organ donors.
Results:
The threat of the patient dying, the inconsistent commitment of physicians to organ donation, and returning to an empty space were frequently mentioned stressors. All nurses felt positive about being involved in the organ donation process.
Conclusion:
To deal with the stressors, nurses recommended more education in the area of grief, crisis interventions, stress, and coping theories. More important, they suggested the need to address their feelings through stress debriefing sessions.