Determining ICU staff's conceptions, opinions, views, experiences and reflection (DISCOVER) of organ donation – Results from a Swiss multicenter survey

BACKGROUND: We aimed to examine ICU professionals' perceptions, opinions, and understanding of post-mortem organ donation, and their associations with personal and professional experiences. METHODS: Between October 2024 and April 2025, we conducted a cross-sectional survey in three Swiss ICUs, assessing perceptions, beliefs, and understanding of organ donation (primary endpoints), and their relationship with demographic characteristics and professional experiences (secondary endpoints). Emotional and ethical perspectives were rated using Likert scales. RESULTS: Among 338 professionals (median age 39 years; 75% women; 80% nurses; median ICU experience 15 years), most had cared for brain dead organ donors, and understanding/approval were high. While 75% would accept organs, 70% were open and 41% fully committed to donating; "helping others" motivated 30.7% of the open and 13.9% of the committed. Reluctance stemmed from dignity concerns, doubts on brain death, or fear to burden relatives. Lower willingness to donate correlated with higher age (ρ = -0.309), longer ICU experience (ρ = -0.335), and belief in life after death (ρ = -0.168), while approval of the brain death concept was positively correlated (ρ = 0.253; all p ≤ 0.002); physicians were more willing than nurses (10 vs. 9; p = 0.001), and willingness aligned with wishing to receive organs (10 vs. 2; p < 0.001). The latter was linked to lower age (36 vs. 50), fewer ICU years (13 vs. 28), stronger wish to donate (10 vs. 2), and better understanding of brain death (10 vs. 9; all p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Swiss ICU professionals support organ donation, though strong commitment to donate their own organs is limited and helping others was not reported as a predominant motivation. REGISTRATION: NCT06640088, registered on October 10, 2024.