Abstract
A questionnaire was distributed in a group of randomly selected hospital staff to ascertain the level and factors associated with awareness regarding organ transplantation, brain death, and cadaveric organ donation. Between October and December 2000, a total of 166 paramedical (nurses, technologists, medical physicists) and 100 nonmedical (administrative, clerical, engineering, social scientists, and miscellaneous) staff of a tertiary referral academic hospital in northern India received this questionnaire. Ninety-seven percent had good to excellent awareness about transplantation, 17.3% of the hospital staff thought that brain death was a reversible process, and 59.4% had misconceptions about the retrieval of cadaveric organs. A significant positive correlation (r=0.147, P=.01) was observed between the awareness of transplantation, brain death, and organ donation. A significant association was also observed between the workplace (operating room and intensive care unit vs other areas) and awareness of transplantation (P=.048), and brain death and organ donation (P=.030).
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