Critical care nursing clinics of North America
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Crit Care Nurs Clin North Am · Mar 1992
Psychosocial, legal, ethical, and cultural aspects of organ donation and transplantation.
Organ donation is largely dependent on the attitude and timing of health care professionals working with donor families. Critical care nurses are in a unique position to increase the supply of organs for donation, and they must assume some professional responsibility for the existence of the current supply and demand disparity. The transplant recipient and his or her family undergo extraordinary stresses in dealing with the uncertainty generated by this desperate situation. ⋯ Racial and cultural differences do appear to exist in regard to organ donation and transplantation. Further study of HLA antigens and possible differences in immunoreactivity in nonwhites may narrow the gap in both graft and patient survival. Aggressive educational efforts to increase organ donation in blacks and Hispanics need to be undertaken to better serve the needs of their transplant populations.