Human organ donation and spirituality: a multicentre observational study aimed at healthcare professionals who work in the Italian context
Keywords:
Spirituality, transplants, donorsAbstract
Aim. This study aimed to assess if spirituality could be a predictor of organ donation, using a descriptive/ knowledge survey aimed at healthcare professionals working in Italy.
Methods. This multicentre, descriptive observational study was conducted in three Italian regions (Lombardy,
Piedmont and Apulia). Two scales were used for the data collection: the Organ Donation Attitude Scale (ODAS) to explore the healthcare staff’s attitudes towards organ donation and the Spiritual Health LifeOrientation Measure (SHALOM) to explore their perception of the concept of spirituality.
Results. The sample included 688 healthcare professionals (460 females, 66.9%). The analysis of their attitudes, assessed as their predisposition to organ donation, evidenced the women’s higher degree of agreement regarding the safety and effectiveness of the practice (40.7% versus 31.1%, p = 0.001). The sample showed a high positive attitude towards organ donation (M = 4.25, SD = 0.50), whereas the level of spirituality was slightly lower than the midpoint of the Likert scale (M = 2.76, SD = 1.31). Spirituality positively predicted the positive attitude towards organ donation among Lombard professionals with shorter (–1 SD) careers (b = 0.078, p = 0.044) and among both Piedmontese (b = 0.250, p < 0.001) and Apulian (b = 0.458, p < 0.001) professionals with longer (+1 SD) careers.
Discussion. Regarding organ donation, the surveyed healthcare professionals showed higher scores in the positive attitude section and lower scores in the negative attitude section, regardless of the geographical context of reference.
References
1. Italian Law 01/04/1999, n. 91. Disposizioni in materia di prelievi e di trapianti di organi e di tessuti. GU Serie Generale (Official Gazette of Italian Republic) n. 87 del 15/04/1999. Available on: http://www.parlamento.it/parlam/ leggi/99091l.htm [Last accessed: 2020, Nov 5].
2. Italian Law 29/12/1993, n. 578. Norme per l’accertamento e la certificazione di morte. GU Serie Generale (Official Gazette of Italian Republic) n. 5 del 08/01/1994. Available on: www.gazzettaufficiale. it/eli/id/ 1994/01/08/ 094G0 004/sg [Last accessed: 2020, Nov 5].
3. Italian Ministerial Decree 11/04/2008. Regolamento recante le modalità per l’accertamento e la certificazione di morte. GU Serie Generale (Official Gazette of Italian Republic) n. 136 del 12/06/2008, n. 136. Available on: https://www. gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/gu/2008/06/12/136/sg/pdf [Last accessed: 2020, Nov 5].
4. Semyon Melnikov TA. Transcendental Spirituality and Acquaintance with the Activities of the Domestic National Transplant Center as Factors Shaping Attitudes toward Organ Donation. Progr Transplant 2017; 27(2): 139-45. doi: 10.1177/1526924817699967. Epub 2017 Mar 27.
5. Italia. http://www.trapianti.salute.gov.it/trapianti/dettaglioContenutiCnt.jsp?lingua=italiano &area=cnt&menu=chiSiamo&id=238.
6. Dhar N, Chaturvedi S, Nandan D. Spiritual health scale 2011: defining and measuring 4 dimension of health. Indian J Community Med 2011; 36(4): 275-82. doi: 10.4103/0970-0218.91329.
7. Rumsey S, Hurford DP, Cole AK. Influence of knowledge and religiousness on attitudes toward organ donation. Transplant Proc 2003; 35(8): 2845-50. doi: 10.1016/j. transproceed.2003.10.078.
8. Fisher J. Development and Application of a Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire Called SHALOM. Religions 2010; 1(1): 105-21. https://doi. org/10.3390/rel1010105.
9. Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang AG, et al. G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Methods 2007; 39(2): 175-91. doi:
10.3758/bf03193146.
10. Damar HT, Ordin YS, Top FÜ. Factors Affecting Attitudes toward Organ Donation in Health Care Professionals. Transplant Proc 2019; 51(7): 2167-70. doi: 10.1016/j.
transproceed.2019.01.183. Epub 2019 Jul 31.
11. Lin MM, Hsu YN, Wang YW, et al. Factors associated with the willingness of clinical health care professionals for living organ donation. Transplant Proc 2018; 50(8): 2320-2. doi: 10.1016/j.
transproceed.2018.02.179. Epub 2018 Mar 20.
12. Araujo C, Siqueira M. Brazilian healthcare professionals: a study of attitudes toward organ donation. Transplant Proc 2016; 48(10): 3241-4.
doi: 10.1016/j.transproceed.2016.09.044.
13. Ahlawat R, Kumar V, Gupta AK, et al. Attitude and knowledge of healthcare workers in critical areas towards deceased organ donation in a public sector hospital in India. Natl Med J India 2013; 26(6): 322-6.
14. Bøgh L, Madsen M. Attitudes, knowledge, and proficiency in relation to organ donation: a questionnaire-based analysis in donor hospitals in northern Denmark. Transplant Proc 2005; 37(8): 3256-7. doi: 10.1016/j.
transproceed.2005.09.063.
15. Pugliese MR, Esposti DD, Venturoli N, et al. Hospital attitude survey on organ donation in the Emilia-Romagna region, Italy. Transplant Int 2001; 14(6): 411-9. doi: 10.1007/ s001470100007.
16. Ingram JE, Buckner EB, Rayburn AB. Critical care nurses’ attitudes and knowledge related to organ donation. Dimens Crit Care Nurs 2002; 21(6): 249-55. doi: 10.1097/00003465200211000-00008.
17. Forsberg A, Lennerling A, Fridh I, et al. Attitudes towards organ donor advocacy among Swedish intensive care nurses. Nursing Crit Care 2015; 20(3): 126-33. doi: 10.1111/nicc.12128. Epub 2015 Jan 22.
18. Flodén A, Persson LO, Rizell M, et al. Attitudes to organ donation among Swedish ICU nurses. J Clin Nurs 2011; 20(21-22): 3183-95. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2011.03756.x. Epub 2011 May 12.
19. Cohen J, Ami SB, Ashkenazi T, et al. Attitude of health care professionals to brain death: influence on the organ donation process. Clin Transplant 2008; 22(2): 211-5. doi: 10.1111/j.13990012.2007.00776.x.
20. Makhlouf NA, Abdel-Monem SA, Farghaly AM, Helmy A. Attitude of Upper Egypt health-care professionals toward living liver donation and transplantation. Prog Transplant 2018; 28(3): 256-62. doi: 10.1177/1526924818781565. Epub 2018 Jun 19.
21. Bresnahan MJ, Guan X, Smith SW, Wang X, Edmundson JZ. Cultures of the soul: Spiritual beliefs about organ donation in China and the United States. Chin J Comm 2010; 3(2): 133-46. doi: 10.1080/17544751003740334.
22. Lam WA, McCullough LB. Influence of religious and spiritual values on the willingness of Chinese-Americans to donate organs for transplantation. Clin Transplant 2000; 14(5): 449-56.
doi: 10.1034/j.1399-0012.2000.140502.x.
23. Ciliberti R, Martini M, Bonsignore A, Penco S. Break with tradition: donating cadavers for scientific purposes and reducing the use of sentient beings. Ann Ist Super Sanita 2016; 52(2): 261-8. doi: 10.4415/ANN_16_02_19.
24. Ruta F, Lusignani M. Analisi delle conoscenze sulla donazione delle cornee popolazione adulta residente in una provincia della Puglia.
Prof Inferm 2019; 72(4): 253-9. doi:10.7429/ pi.2019.724253.
25. Ruta F, Delli Poggi A, Ferrara P, et al. Analisi degli atteggiamenti, delle conoscenze e della disponibilità a donare gli organi degli studenti di Infermieristica. Prof Inferm 2019; 72(4): 247-52. doi:10.7429/pi.2019.724247.
26. Ashkenazi T, Guttman N, Hornik J. Signing on the dotted line. Marketing Health Serv 2005; 25(2): 19-24.
27. Cohen EL, Hoffner C. Gifts of giving: The role of empathy and perceived benefits to others and self in young adults’ decisions to become organ donors. J Health Psychol 2012; 18(1): 128-38. doi: 10.1177/1359105311433910. Epub 2012 Feb 9.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Transfer of Copyright and Permission to Reproduce Parts of Published Papers.
Authors retain the copyright for their published work. No formal permission will be required to reproduce parts (tables or illustrations) of published papers, provided the source is quoted appropriately and reproduction has no commercial intent. Reproductions with commercial intent will require written permission and payment of royalties.