Health advocacy and moral distress among nurses in organ transplant units.

Background: Health advocacy is crucial for both patients and healthcare professionals. However, nurses who recognize the importance of health advocacy may experience heightened moral distress, particularly in complex donation and transplantation cases where patient autonomy, respect, and advocacy are paramount.

Aim: To identify the factors contributing to moral distress among nurses working in solid organ transplant units at a university hospital in São Paulo, with a focus on health advocacy.

Perspectives toward brain death diagnosis and management of the potential organ donor.

Background: Organ donation and transplantation represent one of the most important scientific advances over the last decades. Due to the complexity of these procedures and related ethical-legal aspects, however, there are a lot of doubts and uncertainty about the brain death diagnosis and the maintenance of potential organ donor.

Aim: To identify and discuss the different meanings and experiences of registered nurses and physicians from an adult intensive care unit in relation to the diagnosis of brain death and the maintenance of potential organ donors for transplantation purposes.