May 18, 2023
Bias denies Māori organ transplant option
A Hastings intensive care nurse turned medical researcher says staff bias rather than Māori attitudes may be behind low rates of kidney donation.
Nayda Heays started probing Māori experiences with kidney transplants because of her own family history of kidney disease.
She observed colleagues failing to ask to ask Māori patients about organ donation.
Further Interviews with Maori who have had kidney transplants found it was an option they often had to fight for against an embedded assumption that Maori don’t donate organs.
She says people make tough decisions when facing the threat of early death – and the research shows Maori do donate.
“We need people to stop assuming we don’t do this and then take that power away from us and give us the options. If we do say kaore, that’s fine but at least it was an informed consent,” Ms Heays says.
The research has been published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases (AJKD), which she will present at the International Council of Nurses Congress in Montreal, Canada in July.