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Study reveals scenario of knowledge about organ donation by medical students in Brazil

Research had the participation of academic leagues of the School Bahiana and across the country.

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The survey “Perception of Brazilian medical students towards organ donation”, developed by professors at Bahiana Paulo Bittencourt and Liana Codes, in partnership with professors from different research institutions in Brazil, was published in the journal of the Associação Médica Brasileira. The study heard medical students from academic leagues at Bahiana and from various institutions across the country, in order to find out what their knowledge and attitudes are in relation to post-mortem organ donation.

The newly graduated physician, who at the time of data collection was a graduate of the Medicine course at Bahiana and responded to the survey, Pedro Paulo C. e Silva, points out that the main difficulty faced by the organ donation system in Brazil is the identification of the potential donor patient: “The main difficulties are in the process of identifying the potential organ donor and converting him in an effective donor for the organ transplant to happen. These are complex issues that range from the Ministry of Health to frontline professionals. These, in general, are newly graduated physicians – a segment in which there is a lack of teaching adequate criteria for identifying these possible donors”. The survey result also revealed that most students have the desire to donate their organs in the event of brain death, having already communicated this to their families.

The same group of researchers carried out the study “Attitudes of the Brazilian Population Toward Organ Donation”, in partnership with the Datafolha institute, in order to verify how the Brazilian population behaves in relation to organ donation. The research, published in Kidney International Reports, revealed that the majority of Brazilians accept to be a donor, but less than half have already communicated the desire to their family.

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