Caring for bereaved families: Self-efficacy in the donation request process

Motivated by an organ shortage, a primary objective of professionals involved with organ and tissue donation is to identify and modify key factors that facilitate or impede family consent. "Procedural" factors associated with the donation request process have been highlighted as target areas for change. Several studies have demonstrated that family consent rates increase when specific procedural knowledge and skills are incorporated into agency protocols and health care professionals become proficient with these procedures. Thus, training of these professionals heavily emphasizes development of procedural competencies, with relatively little time allocated to fostering affective helping skills or competencies. Given the lack of attention to affective competencies, this study was designed to examine perceived procedural and affective self-efficacy among health care professionals receiving training as "designated requestors." Findings suggest trained requestors report greater confidence in their ability to perform procedural tasks associated with the donation request process than in their ability to manage affective or emotion-laden issues related to the process.