• Jennifer Hancock, Sam D Shemie, Ken Lotherington, Amber Appleby, and Richard Hall.
• Department of Critical Care, Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, Dalhousie University, 1276 South Park St., Halifax, NS, B3H 2Y9, Canada. jennifer.hancock@nshealth.ca.
• Can J Anaesth. 2017 Oct 1; 64 (10): 1037-1047.

PurposeThe purpose of this survey was to determine how Canadian healthcare professionals perceive their deficiencies and educational requirements related to organ and tissue donation.MethodsWe surveyed 641 intensive care unit (ICU) physicians, 1,349 ICU nurses, 1,561 emergency room (ER) physicians, and 1,873 ER nurses. The survey was distributed by the national organization for each profession (the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses, and the National Emergency Nurses Association). Canadian Blood Services developed the critical care physician list in collaboration with the Canadian Critical Care Society. Survey development included questions related to comfort with, and knowledge of, key competencies in organ and tissue donation.ResultsEight hundred thirty-one (15.3%) of a possible 5,424 respondents participated in the survey. Over 50% of respondents rated the following topics as highly important: knowledge of general organ and tissue donation, neurological determination of death, donation after cardiac death, and medical-legal donation issues. High competency comfort levels ranged from 14.7-50.9% for ICU nurses and 8.0-34.6% for ER nurses. Competency comfort levels were higher for ICU physicians (67.5-85.6%) than for ER physicians who rated all competencies lower. Respondents identified a need for a curriculum on national organ donation and preferred e-learning as the method of education.ConclusionsBoth ICU nurses and ER practitioners expressed low comfort levels with their competencies regarding organ donation. Intensive care unit physicians had a much higher level of comfort; however, the majority of these respondents were specialty trained and working in academic centres with active donation and transplant programs. A national organ donation curriculum is needed.

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