Organ Donation: from Point of View of Students Doing Medical Internship in India

Introduction. To study the knowledge and attitude of a medical student doing internship with regards to organ donation. Methods. A total of 50 specially designed questionnaires were distributed among medical students doing internship at a medical college. Those who gave their consent to participate in the study were asked to fill out the questionnaire. Results. 86% gave their consent to participate in the study. 100% were aware of the concept of organ donation. 68% had obtained this knowledge from newspapers. 4% had obtained knowledge from the Medical College. 48%, 48% and 34% believed that an organ donor was live, brain dead and cardiac dead, respectively. Awareness regarding kidney, eye, liver, heart and skin donation was found to be 82%, 80%, 80%, 62% and 64%, respectively. 54% were aware of Law pertaining to organ donation. 90% were either positive or willing to consider organ donation themselves. 10% felt that the donated organ might be misused. Conclusion. Health care professionals are the first to establish relationship with the potential donor’s family and are a crucial link in the organ procurement process. Their attitude and level of knowledge regarding organ donation would reflect directly on the organ donation activity of any region. The interns in the present study had positive attitude towards organ donation but were lacking in knowledge about some key aspects such as brain death and legality involved in organ donation. Majority of the medical professionals had obtained their knowledge from newspapers and very few were taught about organ donation in the medical college. If education on organ donation and its various aspects was included in medical curriculum, it could empower the future medical care professionals with knowledge to further study the cause of organ donation and serve the society better.