September 9th thru 15th 2018 is designated as National Nephrology Nurses Week. AN recently interviewed a dialysis nurse with a heartwarming story. Nurses Announcements Archive
Published Sep 10, 2018
The 2018 National Nephrology Nurses Week is September 9-15. This week is set aside to honor all nurses that work in nephrology. These nurses work in a variety of positions including private practices, transplant centers, hemodialysis, peritoneal, and various home dialysis modalities. Many nurses also work in the hospital setting on renal floors, transplant units and other general adult and pediatric units. Nephrology is a wide-ranching specialty encompassing many different types of care. However, they all require caring nursing.
The American Nephrology Nurses Association ANNA started Nephrology Nurses week to give employers, patients and others the opportunity to thank nephrology nurses in their lives. Also, in acknowledgment that nephrology nursing can be very specialized, ANNA wants to emphasize the continued need for dialysis and other nephrology nurses. In 2015, the American Kidney Fund stated:
What causes kidney disease? In the US, per the American Kidney Fund, the most common diagnoses associated with kidney disease:
With these statistics in mind, many nurses who don't consider themselves nephrology nurses have a role in preventing and/or slowing the progression of kidney disease. When you care for diabetic patients or those with hypertension, it is extremely important to educate them and make them aware if they have decreased renal function. It is also very important to dose medication for patients renal function even if only slightly impaired. And for those patients who progress to CKD stage 3 (GFR 30-59) it is even more important to bring in the nephrologist.
AllNurses recently interviewed a nurse who works in a large Fresenius hemodialysis unit in Texas. Her name is Maureen Moore and she has an interesting story as to her evolution as a hemodialysis RN.
Hoosier_RN, MSN
3,959 Posts
Thank you for acknowledging this often forgotten area of nursing. I am a fairly new dialysis nurse and when I say this is what I do, I get looks that are worse than when I would say I worked in LTC. Dialysis is truly lifesaving, and no one is there who doesn't need the care. It's very challenging in the respect that so many are so noncompliant with their own self care, a common theme in healthcare nowadays. What makes my heart happy? When a patient is able to get that awaited transplant and go to the next stage of their life!