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Pre-dialysis - the Benefits
Please note, this page is a summary of the full conference speech (click here for the full transcript).
Maddi
Pipes
Madeleine (Maddi) Pipes is a pre-dialysis nurse specialist at the Royal Preston Hospital. Her involvement in renal nursing started in 1983 at Glan Clwyd Hospital in North Wales. She gained experience later in haemodialysis and transplantation at Hope Hospital and Manchester Royal Infirmary, and also worked for three years as an industrial occupational health nurse. She joined the renal team at Royal Preston in 1990. Maddi Pipe's philosophy for pre-dialysis is to conserve health, to inform, to educate and offer support, and when it is time to ease the patient into their dialysis treatment with gentleness, respect and dignity.
Things were not always so, she recalled, Twenty years ago you were very lucky to get any information about your forthcoming treatment at all. People were often admitted to general wards and their operations treated like any other. Patients were often confused, nauseated, and weak. Because there was no Epo, they had to have blood transfusion every few weeks. There was no counselling and nobody took much notice of patients feelings.
"Things changed mostly because people like you were asking questions and not getting answers. Kidney Patients Associations were growing and other things were happening", she said.
Now pre-dialysis is a full-time job and a different matter altogether. Her unit was developing a programme where patients would have an initial meeting with her - ideally a long time before they needed dialysis, followed by counselling and support.
"The future - are we on the right track?" asked Maddi.
"Well, you are the best judge of that, because if we are not doing things properly, you are the ones who have to tell us".
She knew that the equal care programme was not working, because she did not have a lot of things for the ethnic group. The untapped resource of patients was not being used. She would like to have experienced patients present at clinics to talk to new patients,and involve the community and universities more to offer activities to people on haemodialysis and talking to children in schools.
Please note, this page is a summary of the full conference speech (click here for the full transcript).
Question
Time Afternoon Session
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