Role of "relatedness" in donation discussions with next of kin: an empirical study of the common wisdom.

CONTEXT: Demographic similarities between support personnel and next of kin are of increasing interest. Studies examining like-race requestors have not produced clear and consistent outcomes. No studies have examined demographic relatedness factors for family support personnel who are not requestors.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the degree of "relatedness" between family communication coordinator chaplains and next of kin in cases that resulted in consent for donation. To examine "relatedness" in terms of demographic characteristics between primary hospital family support individuals and next of kin.

DESIGN: Retrospective nonexperimental descriptive design spanning 1997 to 2004.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Demographic characteristics including gender, race and ethnicity, age, religion, and contact time.

RESULTS: The results fail to support the hypothesis that the degree of "relatedness" between the family communicator and next of kin is associated with positive consent decisions. The findings show that gender is a shared quality in 60% of these cases, and race, age, and religion are even more infrequently shared qualities. The findings also suggest an elevated role of women in the donation discussion.

CONCLUSIONS: This study fills the void of empirical research through its use of objective outcome measures. The results fail to support the common wisdom and bring to question the foundation of many programs used to promote organ donation. Additionally, the findings emphasize the need for more rigorous investigations and development of more refined, valid measures for examining factors that may influence the donation discussion.