Strategies for family care at the moment of the loss, brain death and organ donation: created from a literature review on main factors that lead to the family refusal to donate organs

Abstract

Purpose: To identify the main factors that lead to the family refusal to donate organs, and therefore to develop strategies to decrease such refusal. Method: It is a literature review. The search for these studies was performed looking for the keywords: organ donation, family, decision making and organ transplantation on Google, Caps, lilacs, scielo and Medline between 2004 and 2008. It was found 35 studies. 11 studies were excluded since they were not related to the family and organ donation. Results: from 24 studies assessed, seven were dissertations and theses, 17 studies were related to the family refusal to the organ donation. After reading and analyzing, it was possible to identify the major causes to the family refusal, such as: the unwelcomed, misunderstanding on Brain Death (BD), dissatisfaction with the attendance, lack of communication, and lack of confidence in the process, and fear of commerce of human’s organs. It was developed strategies for the family care in this process by obtaining information in studies and the author’s professional living.