Health Education Among Patients With Renal Failure - Essay Example

PICOT: In hemodialysis patients with Chronic Renal Failure, how does the implementation of patient education by the ARNP prevent disease complications?

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Purpose of the Project

The main purpose of the project is to highlight the importance of implementing patient education by ARNP to prevent chronic renal failure complications.

Background

Chronic kidney disease is one of the public health concerns as there are currently over 1.4 million people worldwide who are receiving renal replacement therapy. Chronic kidney disease occurs when the glomerular filtration rate is less than 60ml/min/1.73m2 (Johns et al., 2015). The disease affects approximately 12% of the US population (Johns et al., 2015). Chronic kidney disease (CKD) management often involves dealing with the medical, psychosocial, and medical problems among the patients. The burden of CKD is substantial and associated with high rates of hospitalization, premature deaths, and high healthcare costs (Johns et al., 2015). These factors alone demand for better approaches for CKD care. When the patient enters the end-stage renal disease (ESRD) permanent kidney failure is experienced, and the patient would only be treated trough dialysis or transplant (Krause & Schraga, 2019). Over 661,000 individuals in the United States alone have kidney failure and 468,000 of those patients are on dialysis (Krause & Schraga, 2019).

The increase in the prevalence of the CKD in the last decades has been contributed highly by the changes in the demographic characteristics of the patients and the availability of the long-term renal replacement therapy (LT-RRT) during the ESRD stages (Kazancioglu, 2013). The risk factors of the disease include one’s genetic and phenotypic make-up, age, gender, race, and family history. The parameters for instance could include being an African American, older age, family history of the disease, and low birth weight (Kazancioglu, 2013). Other factors include obesity, smoking, excessive alcohol intake, use of analgesic hypertension, and diabetes mellitus could be some of the contributing factors (Kazancioglu, 2013). Uncontrolled risks such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension could progress to ESRD. Environmental risk factors include exposure to heavy metals.

Patients with CKD have higher risks of developing critical illness upon admission to intensive care units. These illnesses contribute to long-term dysfunction of the kidney and later progressing to ESRD. Patients who undergo hemodialysis face complications that are associated with vascular accesses because of abdominal catheters in those utilizing continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) (Krause & Schraga, 2019). The complications from vascular access include high amputation rates and revascularization procedures. The other risks include peritonitis and local infections as a result of peritoneal dialysis catheter exposure. The catheters as foreign bodies provide portals for the entry of pathogens from the external environment (Krause & Schraga, 2019). Management of the critically CKD patient is a great clinical challenge for nephrologists and ARNP.

Significance

Taking into account the high prevalence and mortality rates of CKD patients, there is a need for a multidisciplinary effort to address the issue at hand (Kazancioglu, 2013). The solution of CKD as a healthcare problem cannot be based on hemodialysis or renal replacement therapy alone when it reaches ESRD. On a daily basis, a majority of patients with late-stage CKD or EDSR together with their families need to make important decisions on how kidney failure may affect their lives. It is unfortunate that a majority of patients who initiate dialysis are not educated properly. Without adequate education, a majority of the patients default hemodialysis treatments thus deterring home dialysis programs which are better fit for a majority of patients.

Integrating the public health model of health promotion through education to prevent complications of the disease is a crucial element in CKD care. It is imperative that all healthcare professionals including ARNP participate actively towards the implementation of successful patient education sessions (Narva et al., 2016). Achieving high levels of functioning would improve the life of the patient as well as rewarding positive feedback hence improving procedures. Through better communication, active patient participation in care and positive attitude a significant improvement in the therapeutic environment would be observed (Narva et al., 2016). When the main focus of care is maximum health for its patients, activities that are geared towards achieving it becomes part of the routine clinical contact among the ARNP.

Patients suffering from CKD are charged with integrating complex treatment procedures that include monitoring blood pressure and glucose, changing their diets, engaging in physical activities, adhering to medical regimens that are highly complicated as well as avoiding nephrotoxins (Narva et al., 2016). Implementing these activities means that CKD patients need to participate in decisions pertaining to their care and planning, thus the necessity of having knowledge of their condition and maintaining healthy self-management support. Studies have shown that patients who have a deep understanding of CKD have improved health outcomes as compared to their counterparts. CKD patient education has shown to increase the utilization modalities of dialysis that are self-care based, have lengthened dialysis survival, and improved mood as well as feelings of good health (Narva et al., 2016). CKD care guidelines recommend patient education as one of the critical care components.

Population

The study population will include patients suffering from chronic kidney failure and ARNP in healthcare facilities that implement patient education regarding CKD and those that do not implement it.

Intervention

The grounded theory approach will be applied in conducting the study to inquire about the research problem in question. It will utilize open-ended interviews. The approach is useful as it provides explicit guidelines, offers specific strategies for handling the analytical inquiry phrases, streamlines and integrates data collection as well as analysis, and legitimizes the qualitative research as a scientific inquiry.

Comparison

The research aims to compare patients who undergo health education regarding CKD with those who do not while analyzing the outcomes of each group.

• Expected outcomes
• The study expects a positive outcome regarding reduced complications among patients with CKD education, compared to those who do not receive patient education.
• Time Frame
• The research from the study will take a period of five months to complete.

References

Johns, T. S., Yee, J., Smith-Jules, T., Campbell, R. C., & Bauer, C. (2015).Interdisciplinary care clinics in chronic kidney disease. BMC nephrology, 16(1), 161. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4603306/

Kazancioglu, R. (2013). Risk factors for chronic kidney disease: an update. Kidney International Supplements, 3(4), 368-371. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4089662/

Krause, R., &Schraga, E. (2019).Dialysis Complications of chronic renal failure. https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1918879-overview#a1

Narva, A. S., Norton, J. M., &Boulware, L. E. (2016).Educating patients about CKD: the path to self-management and patient-centered care. Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 11(4), 694-703.