Nurses' locations as organ transplantation coordinators in the Turkey National Coordination System

Abstract

Background: Turkey is one of the worst countries in the European region for the number of deceased organ donors (3.6) per million people. The aim of this study was to evaluate the location of nurses who have been attached to the National Coordination System as coordinators to increase this number.

Methods: We chose 4 regional coordination centers in which the most brain death cases were reported: Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya, and Ankara. Coordinators were classified according to their occupations. We evaluated the numbers of brain deaths and of donors from 2006 to 2009 in hospitals that have coordinators.

Results: The centers that have only nurse organ transplantation coordinators reported 60.3 (total n = 138) of the brain deaths in 2007, 54.8% (n = 97) in 2008, and 47.5% (n = 152) in 2009 in the Istanbul region; 8.4% (n = 131) in 2007, 25% (n = 164) in 2008, and 20% (n = 169) in 2009 in the Izmir region; 42.6% (n = 61) in 2007, 42.6% (n = 56) in 2008, and 32.4% (n = 111) in 2009 in the Antalya region; and 54% (n = 120) in 2007, 45.2% (n = 104) in 2008, and 41.8% (n = 122) in 2009 in the Ankara region.

Conclusion: Brain death numbers have increased in all regions after the nurses started to work as coordinators. Still many potential donor center have no transplantation coordinator.