Personal Factors of Coordinators and Their Impact on Family Interview Outcomes for Organ Donation: A National Experience

Abstract

Background: One of the most critical responsibilities of the Organ Procurement Unit (OPU) is to receive consent
from the family members of brain-dead persons.
Objective: The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of the personal characteristics of coordinators on
their success in obtaining consent.
Methods: To examine how coordinators' personal characteristic influenced their consent rate in the organ donation process, we collected primary data from 99 consent coordinators via phone calls. We measured their
age, education level, work experience, and national and international course participation. We also asked them
to complete Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors Test to assess their personality dimensions, such as extroversion
or introversion. We calculated their consent rate by dividing the successful consents by the brain death cases
they attempted. We then used a penalized logistic regression model to analyze the effect of each personal factor
on their consent rate.
Results: The study found a noteworthy correlation between the personal traits of coordinators (such as higher
education, work experience, vitality, and self-reliance) and their success rate in obtaining consent (P<0.05). It
can be concluded that coordinators with higher education, experience in the field, as well as vitality and selfreliance, had the best chances of success in the consent process.
Conclusion: The study suggests that including psychological tests and evaluating the personal traits of coordinators during recruitment can improve their success in obtaining consent from families of brain-dead individuals. This would ultimately lead to more organ donations and could save many lives.