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.
Social Workers Are a Valuable Resource to Help Home Dialyzors Cope with Dialysis
(6 comments)
Many patients and staff don’t realize that social workers with clinical licenses provide most (60%) of the mental health counseling in the United States today, much more than psychiatrists, psychologists or psychiatric nurses.
Published on 06/02/2016 by Beth Witten, MSW, ACSW, LSCSW
Kidney Caucus Letter Repayment Basis
(10 comments)
Can we shake up the way dialysis is done in the U.S. by changing the way it is paid for?
Published on 05/26/2016 by Mel Hodge
Tags: Making dialysis better,
Completed ten years of home hemodialysis!
(5 comments)
A few days back, I completed ten years of home hemodialysis. When I look back at that time, I think I was quite brave to take this modality up.
Published on 05/19/2016 by Kamal Shah
Medigap Plans for Home or In-center Dialyzors
(7 comments)
At age 65, a dialyzor will have a new 6 month open enrollment period to check plan options, and there may be more options at lower cost.
Published on 05/12/2016 by Beth Witten, MSW, ACSW, LSCSW
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