Knowledge of Criteria for Brain Death and Attitudes towards Organ Donation and Transplantation of Nursing Professionals in Tottori Prefecture, Japan

The nursing professional population in Tottori Prefecture, Japan, was studied for their knowledge of criteria towards brain death and their attitudes towards organ donation and organ transplantation. An attempt was also made to clarify factors involved in issues concerning organ donation and organ transplantation. We distributed 2200 questionnaires to 9 hospitals, and obtained 1879 responses, of which 1683 were valid. The rate of nursing professionals holding donor cards to all respondents was 384/1683 (22.8%). The length of nursing service showed no difference in improvement of awareness of brain death. Longer length of service tended to produce a negative attitude in nurses towards donating their own organs in both brain death and cardiac death. Subjects who were willing to donate organs to others in cardiac death were also willing to do so in brain death. We provided some general suggestions for improving education about organ transplantation in Japan, such as commencing provisions for education regarding organ donation and organ transplantation in junior high school due to ethical issues. To more clearly identify the barriers against the improvement of the situation surrounding organ transplantation, research needs to be cumulated for nursing professionals.