Title: Understanding the long-term relationship in dyads of parental live liver donors and adolescent young adults
Source: Journal of Advanced Nursing 2025, Mar 29. [E–publication]
Date of publication: March 2025
Publication type: Qualitative study
Abstract: Aim: This qualitative study aimed to understand how dyads of parental donors and adolescent young adult recipients make sense of living donor liver transplantation from donation to adolescence.
Design: This qualitative study used a focused ethnographic design.
Methods: Twelve dyads of parental liver donors and their adolescent young adults were interviewed together using a semi-structured interview guide. Data was collected from April 16 to July 30, 2019. All of the interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. The theoretical framework of sensemaking was implemented. Thematic analysis was used, concepts were categorised, connections were made and references to the coding were conducted.
Results: Thematic analysis contributed to the emergence of three categories: connections, reflections and life transitions, and the overarching theme of gratitude for being given or giving the gift of life.
Conclusion: The dyads’ gratitude increased over time through the social process of sensemaking.
Implications for the profession and patients: As living donor liver transplantation in the paediatric population enters its third decade, understanding how it shapes relationships in dyads of parental donors and adolescent young recipients over time can provide new insights for nurses who work in paediatric transplantation.
Impact: This study’s findings address the current gap in the literature on the long-term impact of living donor liver transplant dyads and highlight the role of nurses who provide care and guidance at the time of evaluation and surgery to the ongoing support during the years that follow.
