Wanted: Living Donors' Opinions about Education & Informed Consent

[egordon]

Hi all,

I am a social scientist preparing to write a grant to help living donors prepare for living donation.   My goal is to improve the education and informed consent process to make sure that potential living donors donors are optimally informed and prepared to donate.  I am writing to ask your help to learn what is important to you.  I am not doing research.

Please see questions below. Even if you can answer just one question, that would be a huge help!

1.   What surprised you about being a living donor?  What weren’t you aware of?

2.   How would you like to change the education and informed consent process?

3.   What do you wish you were told that you learned after donating?

4.   How would you like your health care professionals to communicate information to you?

5.   How would you change the delivery of information to potential donors?
a.   There are lots of ways to communicate information to potential donors e.g., through face to face discussions, pamphlets, booklets, videos, websites, web-based games and quizzes, smart phone mobile apps, etc. Which way would you think would be helpful to you or preferred by potential donors?

6.   How helpful would it be to have a web-based learning tool that uses videos and games to educate potential donors?   
a.   Would you prefer web-based learning with or without quizzes that test whether donors fully understand what they are getting into?

7.   Living donors who are cleared to donate still have health risks. Would you be interested in having a method to calculate your specific risks compared to other donors e.g., your risk of developing hypertension after donating (“donor risk calculator”)?

8.   All transplant programs have an education process for donors. I’m interested in your general attitude toward obtaining health information.  In looking back at your experience, would you have liked to have learned a minimal amount, a moderate amount, or every possible detail about what could happen to living donors?

9.   Do you have any further comments about informed consent or about your experience you would like to share?

10.  What are the 3 most important living donor outcomes of being educated about living donation that should be measured?  In other words, what living donor factors might be affected in the short-term or long-term by being educated and/or prepared about living donation and should be studied?  Please check the three most important outcomes that you think should be considered when educating potential living donors.”  Please write in others that you think should be added.
___ Comprehension of living donor risks, benefits, alternatives to donating
___ Preparedness to care for one self after donation
___ Psychosocial health e.g., anxiety, quality of life
___ Satisfaction with donation experience
___ Length of hospital stay
___ Pain management (what it’s like to feel afterward)
___ Expected outcome of recipient
___ Ability to return to normal activities
___ Finances of donation and complications
___ Complications
___ Lifestyle changes
___ Other (please specify): ___________________________________________

Thank you in advance!  Please feel free to email me directly at e-gordon@northwestern.edu

Best wishes,
Elisa Gordon