Organ donation and Norwegian doctors' need for training.

BACKGROUND The skill of the person who asks about organ donation and the timing of the conversation may have an impact on the likelihood of obtaining consent from a patient's relatives. The purpose of the study was to investigate the experience that intensive care doctors and neurosurgeons have of treating organ donors and communicating with their relatives, as well as the doctors' own learning needs. MATERIAL AND METHOD In 2008, we sent a questionnaire to all doctors at all intensive-care units at all donor hospitals in Norway, and to all neurosurgeons/neurosurgical trainees. RESULTS Altogether 435 doctors (55 per cent) responded to the questionnaire. Of these, 63 per cent were specialists in intensive care medicine. More than half had little experience of organ donation or how to relate to the patients' relatives. Many of them reported a need to learn more about the medical issues associated with organ donation and about communication in this situation. INTERPRETATION Many doctors fail to adhere to recommended practice in their encounters with relatives. Training programmes should focus especially on communication with relatives.