Critical Care Nurses’ Attitudes Towards Organ Donation and its Relationship With Empathy

Background: Critical care nurses play an important role in the organ donation process, and their attitudes towards it and willingness to register as an organ donor are related to various factors, including empathy. Objective: This study aims to compare the attitudes of nurses in Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Emergency Department (ED), and Dialysis Unit (DU) towards organ donation and its relationship with empathy. Methods: This descriptive study with cross-sectional design that was conducted in 2019 in hospitals affiliated to Qazvin University of Medical Sciences in Qazvin, Iran on 222 nurses from the three critical care units who were selected by stratified random sampling method. Data collection tools were Chakradhar’s Organ Donation Questionnaire (ODQ) and Davis’s Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), completed by nurses were completed. Data were analyzed by descriptive and analytical tests. Findings: The mean ODQ score was higher in DU and ICU nurses than in ED nurses (P=0.23), where the nurses of ICU-General had the highest score (51±6.07) and the nurses of ED-Trauma had the lowest score. The highest and lowest IRI scores were related to DU and ICU-General nurses, respectively. The total IRI score (r=0.13, P=0.04) and its dimensions of perspective taking ( r=0.152, P=0.02) and fantasy (r=0.14, P=0.03) had a positive correlation with the nurses’ attitudes. Conclusion: Critical care nurses have greater than the average score in ODQ. There is a significant relationship between empathy and their attitudes towards organ donation. Their empathy with patients has a significant effect on increasing their attitudes towards accepting organ donation. Therefore, it is necessary to implement educational interventions for changing the critical care nurses’ attitudes in order to increase their empathy.