Knowledge and attitudes of undergraduate nurses towards organ donation and transplantation in a selected campus of a college in the Eastern Cape

Gidimisana, Nozibele Dorothy

Knowledge and attitudes of undergraduate nurses towards organ donation and transplantation in a selected campus of a college in the Eastern Cape

Master Thesis

2016

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Division of Nursing and Midwifery

Faculty

Faculty of Health Sciences

Abstract

South Africa has a low organ donation and transplantation rate despite the availability of medical professionals with the expertise to perform such transplants. This can be attributed to various factors, such as knowledge and attitudes towards organ donation and transplantation. Despite the efforts of the Organ Donor Foundation in South Africa by conducting awareness and education campaigns organ donation rates remains low. There is a wide discrepancy in the rate of organ donation among the different ethnic groups in the country, perhaps due to a lack of knowledge or for cultural or religious reasons. Nurses, as health-care providers, have an important role to play in enabling patients and families to deal with the topic of organ donation. This cross-sectional study investigated the knowledge and attitudes of 268 pre-registration nursing students towards organ donation, at a nursing college in Mthatha, using an anonymous, self- administered questionnaire for data collection. A stratified convenient sampling method was used. The data was captured and analysed using the SPSS statistical package, Version 21; thereafter, descriptive and cross-tabulation analyses were performed on the data. Results: The majority of respondents (62.8%) were aware of organ donation with a small number (1.6%) registered as organ donors. Ethnicity and religion did not influence an individual's decision to donate his/her organs, which suggested that the decision was a personal one. There was no association between age group and willingness to donate a kidney to a relative, although younger respondents were willing to donate kidneys as living donors. There was also no clear relationship between gender and willingness to donate an organ (p-values of 0.03). Knowledge about organ donation was seen as a strong predictor of the attitudes towards organ donation. The majority of respondents were willing to donate organs for transplantation to save the lives of others. It is highly recommended from the results of the study that awareness campaigns to promote organ donation using various strategies and emphasising altruistic motives can increase the organs for donation.