Prog Transplant
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Because of the nature of the helping professions, nurses are at high risk for compassion fatigue and burnout. In the past, many researchers have studied compassion fatigue and burnout in nurses. However, reports of research assessing liver and kidney transplant nurse coordinators' compassion fatigue and burnout are rare. ⋯ Transplant nurse coordinators had an average level of compassion satisfaction, an average level of burnout, and an average level of secondary traumatic stress. Within liver and kidney transplant nurse coordinators, a statistically significant relationship was found between education levels of transplant nurse coordinators and the level of burnout, suggesting that education levels may influence burnout.
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Patients with end-stage heart failure are increasingly being treated with implantation of a long-term ventricular assist device. As the use of these devices has grown, health care providers have been faced with managing clinically significant gastrointestinal bleeding in this population. ⋯ This article describes the possible causes of, the array of diagnostic procedures for, and treatments for this complication. It is critical to develop an understanding of this topic so cardiac nurses can partner with other subspecialty groups to manage this population.
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To determine Australian emergency department clinicians' cultural and religious barriers to organ and tissue donation (OTD). ⋯ Among clinicians working in Australian emergency departments, religion and culture may be barriers to facilitating OTD in emergency departments because of the perceptions and attitudes held by particular religious and cultural groups. Improving access to education may address these differences.
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CONTEXT-Studies indicate that donor families and hospital staff, particularly operating room staff, fear that organ donors will not be treated with dignity, honor, and respect. OBJECTIVE-The ritual of a unique, family-designed statement of honor followed by a 15-second moment of silence in the operating room before organ recovery was implemented to honor organ donors and their families. The purpose of this study was to describe the development of the ritual and to investigate its impact on donation rates in the California Transplant Donor Network's service area. ⋯ Families reported that the ritual honored their loved ones. Although the collaborative conversion rates were similar in hospitals before implementation (2010), implementation of the ritual affected donation rates in 2011. CONCLUSIONS-The 15-second moment of silence honors deceased donors and their families and improves donation rates in donor hospitals.