Abstract

This thesis is a nursing standard form. The main goal of this work is to show, what kind of resources are needed and what nurse should know to provide a professional care of the potential organ donor. It could be a specific aid for the critical-care nurses and also for student nurses. Nursing care is a very important part of the organ donation procedure. In our time, a great role of transplantation from the dead donors is being underlined at every turn. It is a main source of organs for patients who are waiting for transplantation. That is why the nurse in ICU should be aware of her (or his) great part in saving the transplant candidate's life. The instrument which could help in professional discharge is a nursing standard. A nursing standard is defined as the amount of time and resources needed or considered desirable for each patient in a 24-hour period in order to give the type of care judged appropriate [I. Donald Snook Jr., "Hospitals. What They Are and How They Work", s. 86]. Nursing standards define specific criteria that can be used to determine whether quality care has been provided and to clarify nursing responsibilities, reducing the nurse's exposure to risk and liability [Nancy Burden, "Ambulatory Surgical Nursing", s.131]. The standard is divided into four parts - standards statement, structure criteria, process criteria and outcome criteria. Standards statement says - organ donor's body has ensured hemodynamical, biochemical and water and electrolytic management stabilization and intensive care. Simultaneously, it is a beginning of the candidate's therapy. Health care team provides permanent monitoring of patient's condition, mechanical ventilation, excretion, normal body temperature, stable blood circulation, water and electrolytic management and equalization of biochemical disorders. Structure criteria show us, what kind of equipment, procedures and documents are required in ICU. The medical staff is also subsumed, especially their knowledge and professional qualifications. In process criteria part, nursing care of potential organ donor is presented in details. In turn, the outcome criteria shows what does medical staff want to reach in relation to the patient's condition.

Keywords: organ donor