NHS staff awareness, attitudes and actions towards the recent change in organ donation law in England-results of the #options survey.

Abstract

BackgroundIn Spring 2020 there was a change in organ donation legislation in England (UK). Whilst much is known about public opinions to organ donation and the change in legislation, there is little evidence about the opinions of the NHS workforce. This study was set up to understand the levels of awareness, support and action of NHS staff to this change and to explore the impact of respondent demographics, place and type of work on support, awareness and action.MethodsAn online survey was offered to all NHS organisations in North Thames and the North East and North Cumbria through the NIHR Clinical Research Network between July and December 2020. Participating organisations were provided with an information package and promoted the survey via email and internal staff communications. Analysis was completed using Statistical Analysis Systems software with differences in categorical variables compared using Chi-squared tests.ResultsA total of 5789 staff participated in the survey. NHS staff respondents were supportive of the change in organ donation legislation; this support was most prominent in the Ambulance Service, but found in all sections of the NHS. Across almost all demographic variables, NHS staff were more aware of the change in legislation than the General Public. NHS staff respondents were much more likely to already be on the organ donation register, more likely to have had a conversation with partner/family and less likely to have registered a decision not to donate than the General Public.ConclusionsNHS staff were more aware, supportive and more likely to have taken positive action around the change in organ donation legislation, even across religious and minority ethnic groups. The size and ethnic diversity of the NHS workforce offers huge opportunity to enable and support NHS staff to be community advocates for organ donation and to raise awareness of the change in legislation amongst their communities.Study registrationThe study involved NHS staff and did not require full ethical approval. It was reviewed and approved by a Health Research Authority assessor. IRAS number: 275992

Assessing the influence of affective attitudes, demography and blood donor status on organ donor registration active decisions in opt-out systems

“…It is also important to consider the role of demographic variables. In contrast to previous research (Coe et al, 2023), sex did not predict whether people opted-in or opted-out. This may be due to attitudes being a more proximal predictor of organ donation behaviour than this demographic factor (Falomir-Pichastor et al, 2013; O’Carroll et al, 2011).…”

“…However, there were other demographic variables that we did not include in the study, such as ethnicity and religious beliefs. This is especially important given (a) that these factors have been found to be associated with people opting-in to organ donation (Coe et al, 2023) and (b) the over-representation of some ethic minority communities on the opt-out register (NHS Blood and Transplant, 2021). Therefore, it is important for future research to assess the role of affective attitudes in predicting whether or not people opt-out of organ donation in different ethnic groups and religious groups.…”

“…It is important to note that a variety of factors have been found to predict organ donor registration. For example, demographic variables such as age, gender, ethnicity and religion were found to predict opting-in to organ donation in a newly established English opt-out system (Coe et al, 2023). However, demographics and normative beliefs are generally more distant predictors of organ donation in comparison to people’s attitudes (Falomir-Pichastor et al, 2013).…”

“…We explore if this generalizes to active opt-in decisions under an opt-out system. Similarly, given that age and sex have also been associated with organ donor registration in opt-in (O’Carroll et al, 2016) and opt-out systems (Coe et al, 2023), we also assessed the role of these demographic factors.…”