title: Attitudes towards organ donor advocacy among Swedish intensive care nurses.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the attitudes of Swedish intensive care nurses towards organ donor advocacy.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The concept of organ donor advocacy is critical to nurses who care for potential donors in order to facilitate organ donation (OD).
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective cross-sectional study was employed.
  
  
  METHODS
  Inclusion criteria in this survey were to be a registered nurse and to work in a Swedish intensive care unit (ICU). Participants were identified by the Swedish association of health professionals. A number of 502 Swedish ICU nurses answered the 32-item questionnaire Attitudes Towards Organ Donor Advocacy Scale (ATODAS), covering the five dimensions of organ donor advocacy: attitudes towards championing organ donation at a structural hospital level, or at a political and research level, attitudes towards actively and personally safeguarding the will and wishes of the potential organ donor, or by using a more professional approach and finally to safeguard the will and wishes of the relatives. Data were analysed with the SPSS version 18·0 and the results were assessed by using Student's t-test and post hoc test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), χ(2) , Pearson's correlation and regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most favoured advocacy action was safeguarding the POD's will and wishes by a professional approach, closely followed by actively and personally safeguarding the POD's will and wishes. Nurses at local hospitals reported a more positive attitude towards organ donor advocacy overall compared with nurses at larger regional or university hospitals. Important factors leading to positive attitudes were seniority, working experience, participating in conversations with relatives, caring for brain-dead persons and private experiences from OD or organ transplantation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Intensive and critical care nurses with short working experience in university hospitals showed the least positive attitude towards organ donor advocacy. This is problematic because many ODs and all transplantations are performed in university hospitals.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study emphasizes the importance of organizing the care of PODs and their relatives in a way that promotes advocacy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, Lund University and Department of Transplantation and Cardiology, Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Forsberg
authors.forename: Annette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lennerling
authors.forename: Isabell
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fridh
authors.forename: Magnus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rizell
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lovén
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Flodén
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D064648:Critical Care Nursing; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013548:Sweden; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Advocacy; Brain death; Intensive and critical care nurses; Nursing developments; Organ donation