The educational value and emotional impact on medical students after participating in transplant organ retrieval

Journal article

Introduction: Medical students and healthcare professionals lack knowledge and confidence in organ transplantation which stems in part from a lack of exposure to transplant surgery at medical school. To address this, we developed a program that allowed students to attend organ retrievals and assessed its efficacy as an educational intervention.

Methods: Students were invited to attend organ retrievals through a voluntary program. Students then completed an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire (n = 40) designed to capture the perceived educational value and emotive impact of attending an organ retrieval, and its effect on career aspirations. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed.

Results: 100% of students would recommend attending an organ retrieval to a colleague. Students strongly agreed that attending an organ retrieval was a useful learning experience (87.5%) and 90% of students felt more confident discussing organ donation with patients and relatives. 50% of students were more likely to pursue a career in transplant surgery. Students recognized a number of difficulties associated with the emotive impact of organ procurement.

Conclusion: An organ retrieval program for medical students offers a novel learning opportunity, and may increase knowledge and improve attitudes toward transplantation in future healthcare professionals. However, the emotive impact of exposing students to organ retrievals must also be recognized.

Authors: Reed, A; Baldwin, R; Arwyn-Jones, J; Knight, S; Quiroga, I

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Journal: Progress in Transplantation
• Volume: 31
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 27-31
• Publication date: 2020-12-04
• Acceptance date: 2020-09-24
• DOI: 10.1177/1526924820978590
• EISSN: 2164-6708
• ISSN: 1526-9248
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR