Attitudes and self-reported end-of-life care of Australian and New Zealand intensive care doctors in the context of organ donation after circulatory death

The incidence of organ donation after circulatory death (DCD) in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) has steadily increased in recent years. Intensive care doctors are vital to the implementation of DCD and healthcare professionals ’ attitudes to DCD can influence their participation. In order to determine ANZ intensive care doctors’ attitudes to DCD, to explore if demographic characteristics influence attitude to DCD and to assess if attitude to DCD can predict palliative prescription rationale at the end of life of DCD d onors, a cross-sectional online survey was distributed to ANZ intensive care doctors and responses collected between 29 April and 10 June 2016. Exploratory factor analysis was used to define various attributes of attitude to DCD. Results were subjected to comparative statistical analyses to examine the relation between demographic data and attitude to DCD. Multiple regression models were used to examine if attitude to DCD could predict intensive care doctors’ palliative prescription rationales at the end of life of DCD donors. One hundred and sixty-one intensive care doctors responded to the survey with 69.4% having worked in intensive care for ten years or more. Respondents responded positively to the support of and perceived importance of DCD in helping those who would benefit from the donations (constructive attributes)(mean composite factor score = 3.84, standard deviation [SD] 0.8 3), they positively perceived that conducive and facilitative orchestr...
Source: Anaesthesia and Intensive Care - Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: research