The Lived Experience of "Being Evaluated" for Organ Donation: Focus Groups with Living Kidney Donors.

ABSTRACT:

Background and objectives

Comprehensive evaluations are required to safeguard voluntarism and minimize harm to living kidney donors. This process is lengthy, invasive, and emotionally challenging, with up to one fifth of potential donors opting out. We aimed to describe donors' experiences of the evaluation process.

Design, setting, participants, & measurements

We conducted 14 focus groups involving 123 kidney donors who completed donation from three transplant centers (Australia and Canada). Transcripts were analyzed thematically.

Results

We identified six themes reflecting donors' experiences of evaluation. The themes that related to perseverance included emotional investment (prioritizing the recipient's health, desperation for a normal life, protecting eligibility

SUBMITTER: Hanson CS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5672970 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature