Celebrate Home Hemodialysis Day—with Resources from MEI

This blog post was made by Dori Schatell, MS, Executive Director, Medical Education Institute on March 19, 2015.
Celebrate Home Hemodialysis Day—with Resources from MEI

Tina Harrison, President of Home Dialyzors United
Winifred Yuri Tapper

The lovely, smiling lady in this unfortunately fuzzy photo is Winifred Yuri Tapper, who passed away last month at age 70. She developed kidney failure when she was just 27 and was a much-beloved kindergarten teacher in Simi Valley, CA for more than 30 years before she retired. What made her longevity possible? Nocturnal home hemodialysis (HD) three times a week is a likely factor! Ms. Tapper was the first person trained by Kaiser Permanente to do home HD, and received a certificate from the National Kidney Foundation for living with 40+ years of dialysis. A long, full life like Ms. Tapper’s is the best reason to celebrate Home Hemodialysis Day.

At the Medical Education Institute (MEI), we want everyone with kidney failure to be able to live as long and as fully as Ms. Tapper did, even if they can’t have, don’t want, or have to wait years for a transplant. Last year, NxStage created Home Hemodialysis Day on the third Thursday in March. Since MEI launched Home Dialysis Central in 2004 because we support home treatments of all kinds, we think this was a great idea. (Someone create a PD day!) So, we are using it as a chance to gather some of our home HD tools and resources into one handy document so you can find them again with less searching.

  •  Help, I Need Dialysis!  Dr.  John Agar and I wrote this book, which has tons of detail about all types of home HD and their impact on lifestyle and survival. We offer 5 CE credits for the book for nurses and technicians in a package on our CE website—and discounts for bulk orders.
  • The Help! book was the basis for our free My Life, My Dialysis Choice decision aid—which can help you see which option might best fit your life and values. (Clinicians, try this and see what you might pick. You might be surprised!) Order FREE postcards to share the tool with others!
  •  How to Have a Good Future with Kidney Disease - This free slide toolkit is for teaching MIPPA-eligible CKD education classes one-on-one or in groups—including treatment options.  We did not copyright the slides, so they can be altered to meet the needs of the presenter. An update is in the works! Or, watch the videos.
  • In Kidney School, you can learn about treatment options, and the impact of each type of treatment on various aspects of lifestyle is integrated into all of the modules.

Happy Home Hemodialysis Day!

Comments

  • miriam wachtel

    Jul 16, 2015 10:43 PM

    Is my dialysis center the only place I could get PD training- it seems I need to "transfer" to get training??

    Could I purchase PD machine & leave country with it???

    Is there a home training video for PD so I could just walk in & be OFFICIALLY tested, in order not to have to wait??

    Who can I turn to ??? I'm unhappy with my transplant coordinator????
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    • Beth Witten

      Jul 23, 2015 11:11 PM

      There are many dialysis clinics that offer PD training. You can find them on Home Dialysis Central under "Find a clinic" putting in your zip code and how far you're willing to drive. Keep in mind that after training (usually takes a week or so), you'd only have to go to the clinic 1-2 times a month.

      The ESRD regulations require face-to-face training from an experienced RN who works in a dialysis clinic that has been Medicare-approved to offer home dialysis training and support. The regulations list multiple topics that should be taught and the RN is supposed to assure (competency test) that the patient (and partner if needed) are able to do PD correctly and safely.
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    • miriam

      Jul 17, 2015 1:42 PM

      please respond
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  • Dori Schatell

    Mar 19, 2015 10:49 PM

    Thank you, Lana!
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  • Lana

    Mar 19, 2015 10:41 PM

    This is great... good to keep saying all the resources you have... which is plenty & some of the best in the industry!
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