Why am I here?

[Dorika]

Hi everyone,

I have just joined, I planning to work at the dialysis unit. I am a registered adult nurse.

I wanted to know about you, about the real patient. How satisfied are you with the service and/or the staff. What is the most common problem before, during and after dialysis.

What I need to focus on in the future, beyond that learning everything about kidney disease, how the dialysis machine works and how to apply local policies and guidlines. ( + I must to improve my English skills also  )

Because I would like to provide a high quality nursing care by given attention to induvidual needs and wishes.

I have not read much yet, but I already know a few things:

more patience, respect, empathy, flexibility, trust, listening and understanding better to the patient.

I'm happy that some of you are satisfied with the care.

Your cases are very useful to me, I learned a lot and perhaps later I can use it in my practice. I found very nice people here good to read you.

If you do not mind, I'll be back to read your posts.

I wish everyone a pleasant day.

[Hidden]

I predict you will receive a post from a person on this site who would love to explain to you the issues she has had to deal with during dialysis. I have not yet had to begin dialysis but I read all that I can about all types of modalities for treatment so when and/or if I have to make a decision I can be confident of the choice I make. Good luck.

[Dorika in reply to Hidden]

Hello Mr_Kidney, thank you for your kind words I really appreciate it.

How clever you are afterwards looking at the opportunities and you will not have to make a decision sudden. I like your attitude very much.

I've read a lot of opinions from colleagues, but I want to know the patients' opinions and experiences. It is a reason way I reading this site.

[Tashe]

Dear Dorika, You already seem to have very good ideas about the qualities necessary for working in a dialysis unit.

I also am not yet back on dialysis having had a transplant which is failing. You will learn on the job and gain invaluable insights from your team. Just remember to keep your sense of humour and good luck !

Tashe

[Dorika in reply to Tashe]

Dear Tashe,

I am sorry that your transplant seems to be failing. I hope that this one or a future one will be finally successful.

Many thanks for yuor valuable thoughts and wish you all the very best luck for the future.

Dorika

[Nicolala]

Good morning Dorika

Dialysis nurses are the best anywhere. You will build friendships with your patients as you will see them 3 x a week, month In, month out. I have been on dialysis for 26 years, at home for the last 7.

My tips: be knowledgeable about everything. Patients will ask questions. They need to trust you. Have empathy. Teach them about their machine and treatment to help them feel more in control. Chat to them. Learn who they are. They are human beings with lives and families. Finally, and it's the biggest one: never patronise a dialysis patient. Many will have been dialysing a long time. I've been dialysing since before some nurses were born.

Many patients feel alone and isolated. Support them. Laugh with them. Hold their hand when they are scared.

Being a renal nurse is much more than setting up a machine and inserting needles. You are a friend, a voice of reason when things get tough and someone the patient relies on to get it right.

Good luck. I will answer any questions you may have.

[Dorika in reply to Nicolala]

Good evening Nicolala,

Greatful thanks for your response, I really appreciate your personal views. I will try to learn the technicalities of dialysis and be human touch for my patients.

Your specific problems are not new to me as I worked with patients over 20 years by now.

Your specific thoughts are really useful adition to my attitude in this specific field.

Many thanks again,

Dorika

[Chequers in reply to Nicolala]

How true this is I have not started on dialysis yet (soon) and reading people's feedback such as this is really helping me come to terms with my failing health.

[tilly38]

Hi Dorika,

How nice to read your post and to see how important you feel it is to give good patient care. Your greatest enemy will be TIME, in my experience of being on dialysis for nearly three years, there is pressure on the nurses to complete all their tasks quickly in order to keep to the timetable of 3 sessions a day of patients dialysing for 4+ hours. So by the time they have cleaned down the machine and prepared it, wiped the chair and table etc, connected their patients (usually 4 ) then done all the input on the computer,it doesn't allow much time for pleasant chat oh yes and there is often some emergency when someone needs attention usually a sudden drop in blood pressure. My experience is that most of the nurses would like to be able to give a more personal sort of care but that would need a better ratio of nurses to patients.

I love your ideals and wish you lots of luck in fulfilling them.

[Dorika in reply to tilly38]

Hi Tilly38,

I fully agree with you on TIME. This is major pressure on us indeed. I will try to harmonise the time-restrictions with a human approach.

Thanks for your comment and all the best to you.

Dorika

[Dorika]

Dear All,

This was my first post in my life, I want to express how grateful I am to receive such wonderful responses. I learned a lot from each of them.

I am going to visit the dialysis unit tomorrow to look around before I submitt my appplication for the job, and your support provides me a special approach for that.

Many thanks for everyone again, I keep you informed about what will happen.

Have a good night and keep smiling.

Dorika

[Dorika in reply to Dorika]

Good morning Everyone,

I hope you enjoy your day off - it is Sunday, when our patients are off haemodialysis.

Due to my promise, I give you an outline of what happened earlier this week.

On Monday I looked around at the Dialysis Unit. All were extremely kind and as far as I could judge during the short visit, the patients were very well looked after. This was far encouraging and I applied for the nursing job later on the evening. To my great surprise, on Wednesday a kind manager lady from the company rang and invited me for a formal interview for Friday. I was really frightened, as I felt I would need more time to prepare. After all, I am rather novice in this area of dialysis and kidney diseases. But I took a deep breath, accepted the invitation and spent the forthcoming two days (and two nights) with preparing for the potential questions, basics of nephrology and dialysis, the nursing Code, clinical governance issues and others.

The interview was very hard, lasted about an hour with over 20 consecutive questions, for which I tried to answer as far in details as I could. Just after an hour, the same HR manager lady rang me again. She actually offerred the nursing position for me, welcomed me ’on board’ and told me I had to celebrate during the weekend! You can imagine, I was speachless and was nearly unable to say ’yes I do’. It was more sudden, rather then at my wedding day ! Yes, it is true that I have over twenty years experience of practice in clinical nursing, but this was haematology and rheumatology, not nephrology and besides, not in this country and not in my mother tongue. I really greatly appreciate that this company trusted me and provided this fantastic opportunity for a career change in nursing. I will prove them that their decision was right !

So, I will continue writing to you and keep you posted.

Many thanks indeed for All of you who sent me such positive responses last week - they helped me a lot !

All the very best to you All,

Dorika

[tilly38]

Dear Dorika, I hope that. by some strange bit of luck that your visit to a unit today happens to be the one where I have dialysis as I know they are interviewing for more nurses. Anyway wherever it is I hope you find something that suits you.

Lots of luck