VARIABLES ASSOCIATED WITH FAMILY STRESS RELATED TO ORGAN DONATION FROM A TOTALLY BRAIN DEAD FAMILY MEMBER.
Contributors: Catholic University of America.
Published: 1989
Number of pages: 226
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.; Education, Health.
Description: Recent scientific advances in pharamacologic and surgical modalities have moved organ transplantation to an acceptable treatment. Integral to this is the availability of variable human organs. Although the totally brain dead (TBD) family member is labelled donor, in reality the family makes the donation. Since most states, to meet Federal regulations for hospital Medicare reimbursement, require routine organ donation inquiry with next-of-kin, critical care nurses are becoming increasingly involved in approaching these families.

The purpose of this study was to measure the relationship of six selected situational variables to the stressful experience that families perceive at the time of organ donation from a TBD family member. These variables include: preference unknown, that is the family did not know whether the TBD family member wanted to donate an organ(s); type of family decision-making, isolated versus accommodation or consensus; time between suspected and declared brain death; family participation in immediate post-death bedside customs; heart as a (among) donated organ(s); and age of the TBD family member. McCubbin's (1987) T-Double ABCX Model of Family Adjustment and Adaptation was the theoretical framework.

The design was correlational. Home interviews were conducted with 46 legal next-of-kin. Investigator-designed instruments included: Organ Donation Family Stress (ODFS) scale, Family Participation Visual Analogue (FPVA), and Demographic Data form. F-COPES (McCubbin, Olson, & Larsen, 1987) and Family APGAR (Smilkstein, 1978) were used for evaluating ODFS construct validity.

Six hypotheses were tested. Finding showed a significant, positive correlation between preference unknown and ODFS scores; a significant, negative correlation between FPVA and ODS scores; and nonsignificant correlations between ODFS and the other four variables ($p \le$.05). Using multiple regression, the six variables explained 20% of the variance in ODFS.

Results suggest preliminary conclusions: ODFS may be increased when preference is unknown or when family participation in immediate post-death bedside customs is low. Evidence exists that ODFS and FPVA instruments were useful as self-report measurements. Qualitative information shared by families during interviews hold implications for nursing practice, education, and further research.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 50-07, Section: B, page: 2850.

Thesis (D.N.SC.)--THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, 1989.

School code: 0043.