Nurses’ performance regarding organ donation process in critical care units in Qazvin in winter 2018: A analytical descriptive study

Aim: Considering that the correct diagnosis and management of patients with brain death in intensive care units is the basis of the transplant system and considering the importance of nursing care in the organ transplant process, this study aimed to investigate the nurses’ performance of critical wards with organ donation. Materials & Methods: This is a cross-sectional study performed in Educational and medical centers Qazvin University of Medical Sciences in 2019, in which 190 nurses of critical wards were selected through stratified random sampling. To collect data, the demographic questionnaire and a nursing performance questionnaire regarding organ donation were used and Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analysis (t-test, Anova Pearson and Spearman). Findings: The results showed that the highest mean scores of performance belonged to ICU nurses in Kowsar hospital (2.75 /0 0.61) and the lowest belonged to the nurses in dialysis ward in Velayat hospital (0.85 /0 0.48). 22.8% of nurses had donation card, majority of nurses (76.8%) signed for donation, and the majority of them (96.9%) were reluctant to receive money for organ donation. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of nurses' performance in different wards (P <0.001). Also, the mean score of performance was higher in women than men and in married than single. But this difference was not significant.   Conclusion: According to the results of this study which indicate the poor performance of nurses in this regard, nurses of critical wards should be familiar with their role in the organ donation process, also their performance must be enhanced by holding coherent and targeted training courses.