APPROACHES OF PUBLIC EDUCATORS TO ORGAN AND TISSUE TRANSPLANTATION

Abstract

This study was planned and carried out in order to learn the preferences of the managers, employees and teachers working within the District Directorate of National Education in terms of organ and tissue donation and to increase the level of awareness. This study was planned as a cross-sectional study to examine the preferences and awareness of the employees of Antalya Korkuteli district national education directorate about organ and tissue transplantation between December 2019 and February 2020, and a 20-question questionnaire, which was created using the literature, was applied to the individuals in about 15 minutes. Before starting the research, written permission was obtained from Antalya Korkuteli District Governorship and Provincial Health Directorate; Following the approval given by the Health Sciences University Antalya Training and Research Hospital Clinical Research Ethics Committee, the research was started to be implemented (date of approval: 12.03.2020, decision no: 05/14). 630 (80,0%) of 774 employees working at the District Directorate of National Education agreed to participate in the study and filled out the questionnaire. During the data collection process, as the determining situations attitude; The situation of being a donor by family members themselves, the state of approving to be a donor in case of brain death of a family member, and the state of accepting the organ harvesting of a family member when necessary were discussed. Chi-square significance test was used as statistical analysis. In our study, the rate of positive approach to organ and tissue donation was found to be 64,8% among the directors, employees and teachers of the district national education directorate; rate of saying yes to family organ transplantation immediately is 75,7%; When brain death occurs in their first degree relatives, the rate of those who will donate their own organs is 65,3%, and the rate of those who will accept someone else's organ is 92,9%. In our study, those who knew that there would be no recovery from brain death and those who said they had no fear of organ donation; For family members, it was found that they accepted being a donor more (p <0.0001), stated that they would donate their organs more when their relatives passed away (p <0.0001), and the rate of accepting someone else's organs was higher (p <0.0001). It is observed that those who do not have a clear opinion about whether organ and tissue transplantation is harmful in religious terms stated that they will donate their organs to a large extent (79,3%) when their relatives die. In order to increase the participation in organ and tissue donation, at early ages, by creating a strong knowledge level and content, attitudes and thus behavioral changes in individuals should be ensured. Educational institutions are institutions that will create positive and healthy information attitude behaviors in today's children, who will be the adults of tomorrow, with both their information resources and role models.