Organ Donation a Distinctive Care Agent for Patients with Diagnosis of Brain Death: A Qualitative Study

Background and Aim: Caring for patients with diagnosis of brain death is one of the heaviest duties for nurses, and due to the importance of organ donation is one of the biggest challenges of nursing in the intensive care unit. This qualitative research aimed to investigate the experience of nurses in care for brain death patients. Materials and Methods:The present study was a qualitative research using a content analysis method Purposeful sampling started in-depth semi-structured interviews with 20participants and continued until the data saturation stage. Data was analyzed using conventional qualitative content analysis. Results:Qualitative analysis of data content led to the extraction of themes reflecting the analysis of experiences nurses the care of the brain dead patients and includes “organ donation; a distinct care element” and “'facing increased tensions and conflicts”. Finally, the main themes of “Care stress resonance following a distinct donation situation; a distinct care element” were abstracted. Conclusions:Due to the importance of maintaining the health of donation organs, nurses' experiences have shown that they face many challenges during the care of brain death patients. But the issue of organ donation is one of the major issues affecting the care of organ donor, so managers can take effective proceedings by identifying nurses' challenges in this fields in order to improve the quality of care for these patients.