Roles of sex and ethnicity in procurement coordinator--family communication during the organ donation discussion.

Daniel Baughn, Stephen M. Auerbach, Laura A. Siminoff

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

Interpersonal relations with health care providers influence families' decisions to consent to solid-organ donation. However, previous research has been based on retrospective interviews with donation-eligible families and has not directly examined the interpersonal interactions between families and organ procurement coordinators. To increase understanding of the interpersonal interaction between procurement coordinators and families during the organ donation discussion, with special attention to the influence of the sex and race of the procurement coordinator and the race of the potential donor's family. A descriptive study in which standardized patients portrayed family members interacting with actual procurement coordinators in simulated donation request scenarios. Thirty-three videotaped interactions between standardized patients and 17 procurement coordinators involving 2 different scenarios depicting deceased donation were evaluated. Video recordings were rated by independent coders. Coders completed the Impact Message Inventory-Form C, the Participatory Style of Physician Scale, and the Siminoff Communication and Content and Affect Program-Global Observer Ratings scale. African American procurement coordinators, particularly African American women, were rated as more controlling and work-oriented than white procurement coordinators. Male procurement coordinators were more affiliative with the white family than the African American family, whereas female procurement coordinators were slightly less affiliative with the white family. African American procurement coordinators expressed more positive affect when interacting with the African American family than the white family, whereas the opposite was true for white procurement coordinators. Research is needed to cross-validate these exploratory findings and further examine cultural mistrust between procurement coordinators and families of ethnic minorities, especially given the negative attitudes of many minorities toward donation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)247-255
Number of pages9
JournalProgress in Transplantation
Volume20
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010

Keywords

  • Adult
  • Affect
  • Attitude of Health Personnel/ethnology
  • Attitude to Health/ethnology
  • Black or African American/ethnology
  • Communication
  • Cooperative Behavior
  • Decision Making
  • Family/ethnology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Midwestern United States
  • Patient Simulation
  • Professional-Family Relations
  • Sex Factors
  • Tissue and Organ Procurement/organization & administration
  • Trust
  • Videotape Recording
  • White People/ethnology

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