Study Design

The primary purpose of this descriptive correlation study was to investigate critical care nurses' knowledge and attitudes regarding organ donation.

Research Questions

This study investigated the following research questions:

1. What is the knowledge of critical care nurses towards organ donation?

2. What are the attitudes of critical care nurses toward organ donation?

3. Is there a relationship between knowledge level concerning organ donation and attitudes toward donation among critical care nurses?

4. What is the comparison between the knowledge level and attitudes of critical care nurses from a transplant center and a private hospital?

Sample

Sixty-nine nurses participated in the study; all were working in critical care with 50 from a transplant center, and 19 from a private hospital.

Procedures

Questionnaires were hand delivered by the researcher to the clinical area in each hospital and made available to nurses on all shifts in the participating critical care units. The completed questionnaires were placed in a ballot-like box on each unit to ensure confidentiality.

Instrument

The survey instrument Organ Donor Attitude Questionnaire II (ODAQ-II) developed by Stoeckle was used in this study¹ The questionnaire was modified to fit current procedures in the region of the study. This questionnaire investigated nurses' attitudes and knowledge level regarding donation.

The attitude questions were close-ended questions in which the nurse rated his/her feelings on a five-point Likert-like scale. The survey generated a knowledge and attitude scores. The knowledge score was calculated giving the percent correct (0 to 100% correct). The attitude scores were calculated to give a mean attitude score per response (1 least to 5 most positive attitude). Reliability of the ODAQ-II is reported as a Cronbach's alpha for knowledge of 0.54 and for attitudes of 0.84.¹

Content validity for this study of the ODAQ-II was established by review of the modifications by the Professional Education Director from the Alabama Organ Center, a nurse clinician, and a doctoral-prepared nurse educator. Cronbach's alpha reliability for attitudes concerning organ donation was 0.88 for the modified scale. Reliability for the Knowledge Scale was low in part because certain items are controversial and the correct answer has changed as professional practice policy has evolved.

Data Analysis

Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Research questions were addressed using inferential statistics of correlation and t-tests of mean differences.

Findings

The mean score on the knowledge section was 78.9 (SD = 13.7), with a range from 50 to 100. The mean score on the twelve-item attitude subscale was 4.4 (SD = 0.6), with a range from 2.60 to 5.00. Ninety-six percent of the critical care nurses in this study indicated a strong positive attitude toward the idea of organ donation.

The idea of organ donation was stronger than the belief of donation ones own organs (85%), or the organs of a family member (81%). There was a significant difference in attitudes between those who had indicated consent on their driver's license and those who had not (F = 6.21, P = <0.02) with more positive attitudes more likely to consent. Effect size for this finding was 1.55.

There was a strong positive relationship between nurses' knowledge and attitudes (r = 0.39, p < 0.001). As nurses' knowledge increased, attitudes became more consistently positive.

No significant differences were found regarding knowledge level or attitudes between nurses from the transplant center compared to those from the private hospital. Effect sizes for the hospital groups were less than 0.25 for both knowledge and attitudes.