The Knowledge and Attitude of Medical Students towards the Organ Donation

Lee, Jin Ah; Kim, Soh Yoon

Abstract

PURPOSE: This research was intended to study on the knowledge and attitude of the medical students towards the organ donation in brain death, who will be in charge of organ donation and transplantation as health specialists in the future.
METHODS
The data had been collected from 723 medical students who have finished clinical practice courses in 41 medical schools in Korea.
RESULTS
1) There were significant differences in the knowledge and attitude to the organ donation in brain death in gender and the location of university hospital. Another difference was caused by the ways to gain the information of it. In the case of attitude, there were notable differences according to the ways to obtain information of the organ donation and whether one accepts organ donation. 2) In the analysis of the knowledge of general features, the important factors were confirmed statistically by the location of university hospital and the way to get the information for organ donation. And in the attitude, the medical knowledge and the progress of brain death were more meaningful among other factors statistically. 3) The correlation between the knowledge and attitude of respondents about organ donation in brain death was not valuable statistically (r=0.055, P=0.142), on the other hand, in the medical knowledge (r=0.135, P=0.001) and the knowledge about progress of brain death (r=-0.075, P=0.043), were valuable statistically.
CONCLUSION
For the strategy, they should be added to the medical college curriculum and clinical practice program about organ donation. In addition, medical students would recognize the importance, progress and the role of organ donation in brain death through this program. Eventually, they would have positive attitude about the organ donation and contribute to expand it.