KidneyViews
Welcome to the non-profit Medical Education Institute's Home Dialysis Central blogspot! This page is an umbrella under which Home Dialysis Central staff and guests can share their perspectives about home therapies and what we need to do to raise their profile and enable more people to use them. We'd like your comments as well! Bookmark our site and like us on Facebook! Help us tell the world about home dialysis.
We have a "lifestyle bible" for sale that can help you learn about dialysis options. Help, I Need Dialysis! We also have prepared some slideshows on how to have a good future with kidney disease.
How to Help People with Kidney Disease Keep Their Jobs
(12 comments)
Recently, it has been suggested that the degree to which dialysis clinics help their clients keep their jobs should be a metric used to judge the quality of the care they deliver.
Published on 05/05/2016 by Dori Schatell, MS, Executive Director, Medical Education Institute
Tags: Making dialysis better,
Dialysis Waste Management: Why Won’t Anybody Listen?
(16 comments)
Have you ever thought what happens to this discarded plastic after use? Well, as it is regarded as “infectious medical waste,” it is either sent to landfill (= yuk) or to incineration (= even more yuk).
Published on 04/28/2016 by Dr. John Agar
Switching Partners
(3 comments)
I realized how important, almost symbiotic, my relationship with my clinic had become. Next to my fistula, this was an important lifeline, and when, after almost two months, no new had nurse appeared, I felt at sea.
Published on 04/21/2016 by Nieltje Gedney
Tags: Making dialysis better,
Let’s Not Throw Out the Buttonhole "Baby" with the Bathwater
(15 comments)
Self-cannulation [...] can enable independence. And, fear of self-cannulation has been identified as a major barrier to home HD.
Published on 04/14/2016 by Dori Schatell, MS, Executive Director, Medical Education Institute
Towards Compassionate Dialysis: Thirst and Hemodialysis Duration
(4 comments)
No, the enemy is not fluid compliance. The enemy is thirst. Thirst is an irresistible urge that we trigger through poorly prescribed dialysis. We, the dialysis professionals, are its manservants and handmaidens.
Published on 04/07/2016 by Dr. John Agar
Tags: Making dialysis better,
Humanizing Dialysis: Trying to Make Something Good Out of a Really Bad Diagnosis
(12 comments)
It is important that the nurse be aware of how their patient clients learn; if you don’t do that first, you are wasting valuable time.
Published on 03/31/2016 by Gale Schulke, RN, CDN
A Rational Approach to Dialysis Time and Frequency
(24 comments)
What is abundantly clear is that longer and more frequent dialysis makes sense, no matter from what angle dialysis is viewed.
Published on 03/24/2016 by Dr. John Agar
New Medicare-Covered Service: Advance Care Planning
(0 comments)
A new Medicare payment policy may encourage nephrologists and qualified non-physician practitioners to have discussions about advance care planning (ACP) with those who have kidney disease and kidney failure.
Published on 03/17/2016 by Beth Witten, MSW, ACSW, LSCSW
Dying for Improvement: The Not-So-Hidden Cost of Harsh In-Center HD?
(13 comments)
I have long wondered if the high rate of death in the first 90-120 days of U.S. in-center HD (35%!)1 is caused—at least in part—by overly harsh ultrafiltration.
Published on 03/10/2016 by Dori Schatell, MS, Executive Director, Medical Education Institute
Providing More Holistic CKD Care
(2 comments)
Studies have shown that those who receive CKD education have higher knowledge scores, are more interested in choosing a home treatment especially PD, have slower CKD progression, increased fistula placement and use, and are hospitalized less.
Published on 03/03/2016 by Beth Witten, MSW, ACSW, LSCSW
Tags: Making dialysis better,