Work

Knowledge, Confidence and Preparedness for Brain Death Determination Among Anaesthesiology and Reanimation Residents: A National Web-Based Survey with an Embedded Randomised Vignette

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Under Turkish law, brain death is determined by two physicians, one of whom is a specialist in anaesthesiology and reanimation or intensive care, a responsibility residents assume soon after qualifying. We assessed whether residents' confidence matches their accuracy, and whether the decision to initiate determination is influenced by the family's attitude toward organ donation. METHODS: Cross-sectional web-based survey of a national convenience sample of anaesthesiology and reanimation residents in Türkiye. Ten knowledge statements and three clinical vignettes combined the answer and the respondent's confidence in one choice; the primary outcome was the high-confidence error rate. In an embedded participant-blinded randomised vignette, participants were allocated 1:1 to a medically identical scenario describing the family as favourable or opposed to donation. RESULTS: < 0.001). The mean high-confidence error rate was 5.9 ± 7.3%, yet 50.5% committed at least one such error, and these errors clustered in four domains. In this exploratory comparison, initiation of determination did not differ between arms (85.6% versus 87.4%; adjusted odds ratio 1.29, 95% CI 0.54-3.05). Only 18.0% felt prepared to serve on a determination board; in univariable and sensitivity analyses, preparedness was associated with case exposure and formal instruction but not with knowledge score. CONCLUSIONS: Residents answered most items correctly and were appropriately cautious, yet fewer than one in five felt prepared; self-reported preparedness is not a measure of clinical competence. Supervised clinical exposure, correction of specific misconceptions and communication training are priorities for future intervention studies.

Source: Healthcare

DOI: 10.3390/healthcare14203495

Authors: Seher Yanatma, Sedat Kaya

Institutions: Sağlık Bilimleri Üniversitesi, Diyarbakır Gazi Yaşargil Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi

Language: English

Topic: Organ Donation and Transplantation

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,258