Knowledge, attitudes, and experiences of intensive care nurses regarding brain death and organ donation: a cross-sectional study

Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge and awareness of intensive care nurses regarding brain death and organ donation, and to determine the association of institutional training and clinical experience with their attitudes toward postmortem organ donation.Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted among 446 intensive care nurses working in a tertiary care hospital. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire consisting of four sections, including sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge and experiences related to brain death and organ donation, and the Organ Donation Attitude Scale Toward Postmortem Organ Donation. Statistical analyses were performed using appropriate parametric tests, with a significance level set at p0.05). However, nurses who attended institutional “brain death and donor care” training demonstrated significantly higher scores in the negative attitude subdimension (p=0.020), indicating more favorable attitudes after reverse scoring. Additionally, nurses with experience in following up patients diagnosed with brain death had significantly higher positive attitude and total scale scores (p=0.003 and p=0.010, respectively). No significant differences were observed based on donor care experience.Conclusion: Intensive care nurses demonstrated generally positive attitudes toward organ donation; however, a discrepancy between willingness and actual donor registration persists. Targeted institutional training and clinical exposure to brain death cases are associated with more positive attitudes. Expanding structured training programs and integrating nurses more actively into the organ donation process may improve donation rates.