Organ donation and transplantation education in UK medical schools: a protocol for parallel national cross-sectional surveys of students and educators

Introduction

Solid organ transplantation is a cornerstone of care for end-stage organ disease and a critical consideration for all doctors managing chronic conditions such as chronic kidney disease. Transplantation is wholly dependent on organ donation (both living and deceased), with shortages directly limiting access to life-saving therapy and resulting in preventable mortality for patients on waiting lists. Yet undergraduate exposure to organ donation and transplantation (ODT) across UK medical schools is anecdotally poor and not mapped nationally. The most substantive UK evidence is more than two decades old and demonstrates limited exposure and significant knowledge gaps among final-year medical students.

We here describe a protocol for two coordinated national surveys: U-KNOW-RT (Understanding and Knowledge of Renal Transplantation; final-year students) and U-TEACH-ODT (Undergraduate Teaching in ODT; educator leads). Together, these will provide the first UK-wide mapping of undergraduate ODT education, generating contemporary evidence on teaching provision, student exposure, knowledge, attitudes and career intentions. This work will directly inform the design of a standardised national ODT teaching module to ensure that all UK medical graduates attain a core level of literacy in ODT. Survey distribution is scheduled for January 2026, with completion expected by summer 2026.

Methods and analysis

We will conduct two parallel cross-sectional online surveys. U-KNOW-RT will recruit final-year medical students from all 44 UK medical schools via social media, institutional channels and student societies. U-TEACH-ODT will invite deans and senior curriculum leads. The student target is ~1200 responses (≥10 per school) to enable national mapping and triangulation with educator reports. Analyses will follow the Consensus-Based Checklist for Reporting of Survey Studies and the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys reporting frameworks. Prespecified outcomes include student knowledge, exposure and attitudes alongside educator-reported curricular provision. Primary analyses will use mixed-effects regression with school-level clustering, agreement between student and educator reports will be quantified and selected items will be readministered to allow 20-year comparisons with legacy surveys.

Ethics and dissemination

This study involves human participants and was granted ethical approval by the University of Sheffield Ethics Department (reference 070914) on 25 November 2025. Participants provided informed consent before taking part. This manuscript reports a study protocol only; no results will be reported. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, conferences and feedback to medical schools and national bodies. De-identified data, questionnaires and analysis code will be shared openly on Open science framework.

Trial registration number

OSF preregistration (DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/38W5N).