Staff Education for Fluid Allowance

Download or read book Staff Education for Fluid Allowance written by Stephanie Mina and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Background: Patients with Chronic Kidney disease stage 5 (CKD Stage 5) must have an artificial means to clean their blood in order to stay alive. Many patients choose an in-center facility where they are treated with a process known as hemodialysis (HD) three to four hours a day, three times a week. This population is asked to adhere to diet and medication regimes; however, many studies show that the most difficult adherence is fluid allowance. Nurses and technicians caring for these patients have a considerable opportunity to build relationships with these patients, educate them and thereby reduce the incidence of fluid overload, hospitalization and patient survival. Objective: Provide a nutrition education in-service to the clinical staff of the DaVita Walnut Towers Dialysis unit, to improve their ability to reinforce the fluid allowance to patients. Methods/Procedure: The study will utilize a quasi-experimental, pre/post test design, with a convenience population of professional staff of the DaVita Dialysis center who are directly engaged in patient care. The researcher intends to educate participants utilizing a PowerPoint Presentation and handout presented by the researcher, the Registered Dietitian of the facility. Ten prospective subjects are primarily Caucasian and African American, both male and female, between 20-65 years old. The staff could include Registered Nurses and Patient Technicians. Results/Conclusions: Results revealed a 10% increase in mean knowledge score. Of the 8 participants, 25% (n=2) had identical scores on both the pre-test and post-test: one subject or 12.5% had a drop in score and 62.5% (n=5) increased scores. Further research is needed to investigate the influence of RD-provided staff education on patient adherence.