Patient's PD Drainage

[TEXASWAG, MSN, RN]

There's a patient in the hospital who is on peritoneal dialysis. His family has decided, with the nephrologist approval, to do the PD treatment and not have the regular dialysis nurses do his PD treatment. There have been some issues in the past with this patient and the dialysis nurses concerning who gave the patient peritonitis. So, the patient has his own machine and set up. The family connects him at night on his machine, and disconnects him in the morning.

What I have an issue with is that the family wants us, the dialysis nurses who they claim gave him peritonitis, to discard his effluent. They don't want us to do his PD treatment, but it's okay for us to discard his waste. I don't agree with this because they are doing his PD treatment, so they should discard the waste themselves.

So, has anyone else had a patient do his/her own PD treatment in the hospital? Also, who discarded the effluent?

[Chisca, RN]

We have had patients that wanted to do their own therapy while in hospital but management's opinion is that this exposes the hospital to legal risk and won't allow it. You don't need a nursing license to empty effluent. Why does the family feel a nurse needs to perform this task?

[TEXASWAG, MSN, RN]

The patient's daughter is angry because she claims that we gave her father peritonitis. The nephrologist wants to make the family/daughter/patient happy. Also, the patient is a retired doctor and the family has money. So, the daughter doesn't like us but she wants us to discard the PD waste. The director of the dialysis department is a joke, so whatever the doctor wants us to do she will back him up.

[Guttercat, ASN, RN]

Just empty the bags and be polite/professional about it. Right or wrong, the patient and family have made up their minds about who caused the peritonitis. Nothing you can do about that.

[chiflavored]

Emptying the effluent isn't too bad. I know where you are coming from but I would just do it. You just hook it up and let it drain, then dispose of the bag, right?

[diabo, RN]

If the patient uses any supplies from the hospital, or if the staff takes any time with the patient, they are charged for the procedure, and therefore we are their servants, as long as we "do no harm." Just make sure everything gets charted in a factual way.

[jordanmorrow]

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