Determining ICU staff's conceptions, opinions, views, experiences and reflection (DISCOVER) of organ donation – Results from a Swiss multicenter survey
Pascale Grzonka, Sebastian Berger, Kai Tisljar, Sabina Hunziker, Urs Fisch, Regina Schumann, Mathias Nebiker, Luca Cioccari, Raoul Sutter
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background
We aimed to examine ICU professionals' perceptions, opinions, and understanding of post-mortem organ donation, and their associations with personal and professional experiences.
Methods
Between October 2024 and April 2025, we conducted a cross-sectional survey in three Swiss ICUs, assessing perceptions, beliefs, and understanding of organ donation (primary endpoints), and their relationship with demographic characteristics and professional experiences (secondary endpoints). Emotional and ethical perspectives were rated using Likert scales.
Results
Among 338 professionals (median age 39 years; 75% women; 80% nurses; median ICU experience 15 years), most had cared for brain dead organ donors, and understanding/approval were high. While 75% would accept organs, 70% were open and 41% fully committed to donating; “helping others” motivated 30.7% of the open and 13.9% of the committed. Reluctance stemmed from dignity concerns, doubts on brain death, or fear to burden relatives. Lower willingness to donate correlated with higher age (ρ = −0.309), longer ICU experience (ρ = −0.335), and belief in life after death (ρ = −0.168), while approval of the brain death concept was positively correlated (ρ = 0.253; all p ≤ 0.002); physicians were more willing than nurses (10 vs. 9; p = 0.001), and willingness aligned with wishing to receive organs (10 vs. 2; p < 0.001). The latter was linked to lower age (36 vs. 50), fewer ICU years (13 vs. 28), stronger wish to donate (10 vs. 2), and better understanding of brain death (10 vs. 9; all p = 0.002).
Conclusions
Swiss ICU professionals support organ donation, though strong commitment to donate their own organs is limited and helping others was not reported as a predominant motivation.
Registration: NCT06640088, registered on October 10, 2024.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Critical Care, the official publication of the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine (WFSICCM), is a leading international, peer-reviewed journal providing original research, review articles, tutorials, and invited articles for physicians and allied health professionals involved in treating the critically ill. The Journal aims to improve patient care by furthering understanding of health systems research and its integration into clinical practice.
The Journal will include articles which discuss:
All aspects of health services research in critical care
System based practice in anesthesiology, perioperative and critical care medicine
The interface between anesthesiology, critical care medicine and pain
Integrating intraoperative management in preparation for postoperative critical care management and recovery
Optimizing patient management, i.e., exploring the interface between evidence-based principles or clinical insight into management and care of complex patients
The team approach in the OR and ICU
System-based research
Medical ethics
Technology in medicine
Seminars discussing current, state of the art, and sometimes controversial topics in anesthesiology, critical care medicine, and professional education
Residency Education.