Kidney Matters - Issue 17 Summer 2022
Your Summer 2022 Kidney Matters magazine is out now! In this issue: • Chronic kidney disease and the cost of living crisis • Navigating nephrotic syndrome as a family • Kidney clinic: coping with brain fog • Celebrating Ramadan when you're living with CKD • Kidney Kitchen's fresh-tasting Salad Niçoise – perfect for summer! We know that being a kidney patient can be tough at times and that accessing the right help at the right time isn’t always easy. We’ve spent a great deal of time talking and listening to kidney patients about what we can do to address this at every stage of kidney disease. The response was overwhelmingly ‘improved communication’ on what is going on in the kidney world, how other patients manage their life with kidney disease and what is available to them in terms of support and how to access it. Kidney Matters has been developed to tackle this as well as the many other issues kidney patients face in day-to-day life. Along with shared patient experiences, Kidney Matters provides information on how to access emotional and practical support, financial assistance through our grant schemes, advice from leading kidney specialists and tips on how to keep as well as possible by eating a healthy diet whilst on dialysis.
Your Summer 2022 Kidney Matters magazine is out now! In this issue:
• Chronic kidney disease and the cost of living crisis
• Navigating nephrotic syndrome as a family
• Kidney clinic: coping with brain fog
• Celebrating Ramadan when you're living with CKD
• Kidney Kitchen's fresh-tasting Salad Niçoise – perfect for summer!
We know that being a kidney patient can be tough at times and that accessing the right help at the right time isn’t always easy. We’ve spent a great deal of time talking and listening to kidney patients about what we can do to address this at every stage of kidney disease. The response was overwhelmingly ‘improved communication’ on what is going on in the kidney world, how other patients manage their life with kidney disease and what is available to them in terms of support and how to access it.
Kidney Matters has been developed to tackle this as well as the many other issues kidney patients face in day-to-day life. Along with shared patient experiences, Kidney Matters provides information on how to access emotional and practical support, financial assistance through our grant schemes, advice from leading kidney specialists and tips on how to keep as well as possible by eating a healthy diet whilst on dialysis.
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16
FEATURE ARTICLE
Enhanced Recovery After
Surgery (ERAS) programme
By Carrie Scuffell, Lead Nurse for enhanced recovery in transplantation, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NHS
A generous grant of £103,740 from Kidney Care UK has enabled us to introduce an
Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) programme for our kidney transplant
patients. The funding was for one year and paid for an ERAS nurse and Physiotherapist.
The programme is designed to help patients recover more quickly from their transplant
operation and encourages them to play an active role in their care. We provide patients
with education and set daily targets for the patients and the transplant team.
Our kidney transplant recipients had a length of
hospital stay after their transplant of twelve days
compared to the national average of eight days.
We aimed to create an Enhanced Recovery After
Surgery (ERAS) programme for our kidney transplant
patients. ERAS programmes have been widely used
for other types of surgeries. They have been shown
to increase patient involvement and autonomy,
ultimately making better use of resources, reducing
the length of stay, and reducing the risk of postoperative
complications and side effects. Since
Covid-19, reducing the time patients are in hospital,
avoiding unnecessary potential exposure to Covid-19,
and other viruses, has become even more important.
The ERAS Team
To help encourage a change in culture and practice
the multidisciplinary team also helped to shape the
development of this. We learned not to give up and
when the Trust was unable to support the project
financially, we reached out to charity. Thanks to Kidney
Care UK we were able to make what had seemed
impossible, possible. The success of the ERAS
programme is evident from the feedback we received
from the staff and patients.
“It’s been fantastic to see how everyone has worked
together to help the recovery process after transplant
surgery be quicker and easier. Most importantly,
it’s brilliant to see our patients understanding their
recovery, feeling well and being discharged home so
much earlier after their transplant surgery.” Dr Frankie
Dowen, Consultant Nephrologist, Freeman Hospital.
“It amazed me how busy everyone was and still
had time to educate me to help me stay in control.
I will be eternally grateful for that. I would definitely
recommend ERAS. Great team, great for the patient
journey. Thank you.” ERAS patient.
“ERAS is a brilliant project and should be shared on
all wards and trusts. Gives the patient independence
and motivation.” ERAS patient.
Patient engagement
To make sure the programme was patient-centred,
patient representatives from Tyneside Kidney
Patients Association (TKPA) were consulted. This
provided the backbone of the patient perspective,
bringing useful feedback and ideas, helping with the
development of the patient journal.
Evidence gathering
We carried out a national survey, gathering
information from all 23 UK transplant centres on
perioperative practices (before and after the surgery)
and feelings towards ERAS. The findings from this
survey have been published in the medical journal the
Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Stages of ERAS
There are three main stages to our ERAS programme:
Stage 1. Help patients better prepare for their
transplant.
We do this by providing information, talking through
the principles of enhanced recovery, what to expect
whilst they are in hospital, and introducing them to
the patient journal.
www.kidneycareuk.org
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