Does anyone have a ESRD nursing tool I can look at?

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I am back at school after many years in clinical research. We need to develop an assessment tool for ESRD. One we would use ourselves when we begin to work in the dialysis unit. Anyone have something I could look at to get some idea of how to begin. MALCA

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Specializes in CCU, Geriatrics, Critical Care, Tele.
I am back at school after many years in clinical research. We need to develop an assessment tool for ESRD. One we would use ourselves when we begin to work in the dialysis unit. Anyone have something I could look at to get some idea of how to begin. MALCA
Hi malca,

Welcome to allnurses.com! I moved your post to the Renal / Dialysis and Urology Nursing forum, instead of the introduction forum. Good Luck!

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Just a suggestion.....(since our admit assessment is 5 pages long)....why not call your nearest dialysis center and introduce yourself and ask if you could use one of theirs?

There is an extensive admit assessment, then each tx requires a pre- and post- assessment which is just basic v/s, lung sounds, heart sounds, level and location of edema, condition of access/site, orientation level, whether they have visited an ER, been hospitalized or had an OP procedure since seen last (if they have the center bills more for the tx) and if you're in CA you have to add a pain scale.

You also want to look at the particular extremity the access is in - is the arm (or leg) swollen above or below the access? (If swollen above could indicate some venous stenosis and the access may have to be cleared) Is the area distal to that warm or cool (if cool could indicate "steal syndrome")? Is there pain in the affected extremity?

Post tx we also indicate bleed time (how long it took each site to stop bleeding) - if over an hour, we know that either there are access problems beginning to develop or we need to cut back the heparin - or both.

Hope this helps....

Barbara

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They are expecting me to make up my own tool system by system I am just overwhelmed. Thanks for the suggestion though. MALCA :crying2:

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Specializes in Hemodialysis, Home Health.
They are expecting me to make up my own tool system by system I am just overwhelmed. Thanks for the suggestion though. MALCA :crying2:

I'm not sure just exactly what you're needing, but I can give you some good ESRD links which might help:

http://www.iKidney.com

http://www.hdcn.com/

http://www.doctome.com/

Hope these can give you the info you need. :)

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