The efficiency of educational courses for increasing organ donation rates; The IrOSS experience
Marzieh Latifi1, Ali Etemadi2, Katayoun Najafizadeh1,2, Mehdi Shadnoosh3, Sanaz Dehghani4, Omid Ghobadi1.
1Iranian Society Of Organ Donation, ISOD, Tehran, Iran (Islamic Republic of); 2School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (Islamic Republic of); 3Ministry of Health , Transplant Management Center Director, Tehran, Iran (Islamic Republic of); 4Ministry of health, Transplant Management Group Director, Tehran, Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Introduction: The training course of medical personnel is lacking sufficient educational material on the diagnosis and maintenance of brain dead individuals. As the practical knowledge of medical personnel significantly impacts the donation rates, educational courses are expected to at least partly improve the number of utilized donors per million population (PMP). The present quality improvement project aimed to evaluate the effect of our designed course, known as IrOSS (Iranian opus’s supporting system), on the number of organ donors PMP.
Materials and Methods: The IrOSS course was held in 14 organ procurement units (OPU) in 11 provinces of Iran, during 2019. IrOSS consisted of a five days training course, by anesthesiologists, Internists, neurologists, and experienced transplant coordinators. Transplant coordination manual handbook, notable articles, and local material were used for the design of the current course. Each session lasted 12 hours and 4 teams addressed the education of medical personnel in each province. The educational material consisted of the epidemiology of organ donation, possible donor detection, brain death diagnosis, donor maintenance, family approach, and legalities. Theoretical and practical sessions, case-based discussions, role-playing, and simulations were used during the present course. The participants were evaluated through online quizzes. The rate of organ donation was evaluated before the IrOSS course and three months after its implementation in each province. Data analysis was carried out by SPSS v.16. The Paired t-test was used to compare the donation rate PMP before and after the present intervention.
Results and Discussion: The result of the paired t-test analysis showed that the rate of PMP was significantly improved after the implementation of IrOSS (p<0.006). The baseline and final donation PMP are summarized in figure 1. The results of the present study showed that IrOSS can significantly increase donation rates at a provincial level. While the observed improvements were not uniform, the scale of the increase in donation rates is large enough to conclude the success of the present project; although there is room for improvement through local adjustments in each province.
Conclusion: Considering the success of the current educational course, IrOSS can serve as a baseline for the design of other educational courses worldwide. Although local adjustments are necessary for increased effectiveness, the current study implies the necessity of the presence of similar educational programs in all donation models.