PEAK CAMPAIGN LEARNING CENTER

Throughout the Campaign, the PEAK Learning Center will feature approaches that providers, health care professionals, and patients can focus on to improve survival in their first year of dialysis.

This month the Campaign spotlights three best practices—two centered on improving patients’ engagement in care and one on minimizing the use of catheters; downloadable fact sheets for each practice also are available.

The best practices have been recommended by the Patient/Family Engagement Expert Panel and the Technical/Curriculum Expert Panel. Each practice presents the interventions to achieve the practice, along with tools and resources for patients, healthcare professionals, and providers

PATIENT "TOOLS OF ENGAGEMENT" BEST PRACTICES

HOW DO YOU ACHIEVE THIS BEST PRACTICE ?

1. Empower patients (who have the desire and ability) to become leaders and advocates thru rolemodeling, on-going support, training, and patient advocacy.
2. Provide peer-to-peer networking and resources to patients through telephonic, face to face, printed,
   web-based, and multi-media domains.
3. Encourage hope; provide stories of success and education that will assist patients to engage with
   their caregivers/providers.
4. Improve the dialysis environment by using the principles of Culture Change* to make the space—
   especially the waiting room—more welcoming, accessible, comfortable, less stressful, inviting, and
   cheerful.
5. Provide training to the health care team to achieve culture change from a clinical focused model to a
   patient holistic model that promotes emotional well-being and greater patient involvement.
6. Create strategies for the health care team that proactively encourage patients to develop and
   sustain a positive attitude during their course of treatment.
7. Encourage patients spiritual well-being by making staff and patients aware of community resources, including faith based and cultural organizations.
8. Encourage patients to see the value of employment, education and volunteer work in their
   community.

HOW DO YOU ACHIEVE THIS BEST PRACTICE ?

1. Identify and provide learning opportunities in varying:
   1. Formats
      • Written
      • Live
      • Telephonic
   2. Delivery Vehicles
      • Telephonic
      • Audio
      • Video/DVD
      • Computer-based
      • Web-based
      • Radio
   3. Settings
      • Home
      • Dialysis unit
      • Hospital
      • Other community providers
2. Assess patient’s perception of care and quality of life at initiation of dialysis with periodic reevaluation and/or at the end of each treatment.
3. Develop qualitative assessment tool that is based in Story Theory
4. Questions that could be asked by health care professionals include:
   1. Tell me about the challenges you are facing as you begin dialysis.
   2. What is most important to you right now?
   3. Can you think of a past challenge or “difficult time” that you “got through”? Tell me about that
      time – what helped you get through it?
   4. Tell me about your future hopes and dreams.
5. Questions that could be asked by the dialysis technician:
   1. Can you tell me what is most important to you right now?
   2. Is there anything I should know about you that you have not already told me?

Campaign Learning Center Resources

Right Start Program

• Right Start Program Background
• The RightStart Program Presentation, Dr. Ray Hakim, March 12, 2009
• Early Intervention Improves Mortality and Hospitalization Rates in Incident Hemodialysis Patients: RightStart Program

Patient Tools and Resources

• Best Practice #1 Tools and Resources
• Best Practice #2 Tools and Resources