I've had a kidney transplant. Can I become an RN?

[S.P.]

After going through dialysis and having a transplant it changed my life profoundly. It has taken me quite some time to get back to a normal lifestyle. It's been 7 years since my transplant and everything is 100%.

So I'm considering career options and would love to give back and help people that are in the circumstance I was once. Having a unique perspective that most nurses won't have I feel I could sympathize very well with patients. But given that I am on immunosuppressants, would a hospital allow me to work for them?

[talaxandra]

I work with a nurse who's had a renal transplant (well, two) and it hasn't been an issue with his employment - he was promoted to ACN and is currently in an acting care coordinator role.

Congratulations on your success thus far and good luck with nursing, if you decide to go ahead :)

[Cilantrophobe]

I've had a kidney transplant. Can I become an RN?

Are you asking a rhetorical question? The reason why I ask is because you may find others like yourself in the general nursing forum. You can't honestly believe that you cannot become a nurse because you've had a kidney transplant...The world isn't THAT unfair.

[flightnurse2b, LPN]

you absolutely can become a nurse!

i would just be extra careful with your universal precautions and hand washing since you are immunocompromised.

good luck with your future!

[S.P.]

It's good to see others that have had transplants are able to work in the nursing profession. It gives hope.

I am not looking at it from a discrimination view, but as a health view. My concern is with a suppressed iummune system that administrators would not like the idea of myself being more susceptible to contracting something from patients. I was unsure if that would be a determining factor in employment limiting me if, or where I could work.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

You can, but as someone immuno-suppressed do you want to work with contagious sick people?!

[talaxandra]

You can, but as someone immuno-suppressed do you want to work with contagious sick people?!

The colleague I mentioned earlier works alongside me on a mixed medical specialty unit that includes Infectious Diseases - he's just more careful than most of us, and less likely to come in to work when he's run down. He hasn't contracted a disease from a patient thus far, and he's been registered five years or so.

Universal precautions and skin integrity go a long way to suporting even a suppressed immune system :)

[Cilantrophobe]

It's good to see others that have had transplants are able to work in the nursing profession. It gives hope.

I am not looking at it from a discrimination view, but as a health view. My concern is with a suppressed iummune system that administrators would not like the idea of myself being more susceptible to contracting something from patients. I was unsure if that would be a determining factor in employment limiting me if, or where I could work.

By administrators do you mean your future employer?

Do nurses have to have a physical when they are hired by a hospital? How would they know something that personal about you?

[S.P.]

Having gone through dialysis and transplantation, it's something that doesn't leave you. It's nothing I hide. If anything i'm proud of modern medicine and what benefits came to myself from it. I'm sure somewhere through the interview process it would come up. As in, "Why do want to work in the renal department?"

As far as being afraid of getting sick from contagious people, yes I'm at more risk, but I've also learned to take better care of myself than the average person. I've had to, given the circumstance.

I just want to be certain that a hospital would be interested in me as a candidate to work with renal patients.

[talaxandra]

Do nurses have to have a physical when they are hired by a hospital? How would they know something that personal about you?

I trained a long time ago, so things may well be different now but I had a physical - CXR, blood work, urinalysis, and obs, plus a history. I was asked to touch my toes - I'm fat but flexible and can lay my palms on the floor, so that wasn't a problem. When I asked I was told that the only automatic exclusions were: rampant psoriasis, obesity that prohibited the physical effort required to nurse, or significant and uncontrolled mental illness.

[S.P.]

I'm hoping the rules haven't changed since you went through. I'd love to work with renal patients and give back a bit.

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

Your medical condition is protected under HIPAA and you are not required to disclose that you have had a transplant, on immune surpressing drugs, etc.

If you can perform the tasks of the job...that is what they will ask you.

Your experience will give you a good insight of what transplant patients go through and those with renal failure, however, at the same time, you have to be very careful on who you choose to share your information with.

Most patients will not receive their kidney and will die as a result of it...it could have the opposite effect if that patient never gets their kidney and is facing death...they will see you as the lottery winner.

Don't shoot yourself in the foot by disclosing information to an employer that is Class-A none of their business.