Dialysis Experience Essay

The person I interviewed was a Chronic Renal Failure patient that has been on dialysis for about 4 years.

My first encounter with a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthesia (CRNA) was during my undergraduate nursing OB/GYN rotation. I was impressed with the CRNA when she placed the epidural to the patient in labor. I remembered patient had difficulty staying still due to the contraction, but the CRNA took her time to explain the procedure while comforting the distressed patient. Once the epidural was in placed and the medication started working, I could tell the relief the patient experienced. I realized then that a CRNA goes beyond the delivery of anesthesia, pain management and monitoring of patients. Thus, obtaining this degree will prepare me to ease the patient’s mind through education, pain management, monitoring, experience and compassion.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide problem that is currently three times higher for African Americans, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, American Indians and seniors (The National Kidney Foundation, 2013). CKD occurs when the kidneys are damaged by a pathogen or injury and they can no longer adequately maintain proper levels of regulated chemicals in the bloodstream. There are many risk associated with CKD. According to the National Kidney Foundation, two of the major risks are Chronic Renal Failure (CRF) and Cardiovascular Disease. Currently twenty million American adults have CKD and millions of others are at increased risk. Age has no barrier on getting CKD. People with pre-existing health issues, and a part of certain population

Public health nursing is an important aspect of nursing field, which contributes tremendously to the safety and health of our society. Public health nurses work hard to assure our communities are healthy and are able to attain needed support to be self-sufficient. However, it seems their hard work goes unnoticed by vast majority of our society. This of course, is my opinion, but I would say that if I were to survey various communities, most people would say that “Nurses just work in the hospital”. I could be very wrong.

I am a Nurse Manager in the hemodialysis unit. The unit has eleven stations with a patient population of 40. The age range of veterans that receive care in this unit is 40 – 92. Most of the hemodialysis patients have difficulty managing their chronic illness and usually receive treatment three times a week for five hours of each visit. Most of them have

There were no significant differences between either of these labs or the blood volume processed before or after Ateplase push or dwell administration (Vercaigne, Zacharias, & Bernstein, 2012). Push administration injects a small amount of Ateplase into circulation, while the dwell method doesn’t. Often time patient catheters are dwelled with Ateplase in between treatments, as the dwell method requires at least two hours (Vercaigne, Zacharias, & Bernstein, 2012). Hemodialysis units operate on a stringent schedule per shift that decreases flexibility of time. As a result of this the push method is most widely ordered. Within this author’s clinic, once the push method is unsuccessful after two attempts the dwell method is then implemented. In conclusion, the push method was found to have the best immediate and long term results within this study. The authors identified that the sample size was inadequate, which ultimately decreased the validity of this finding (Vercaigne, Zacharias, &

The option that is most frequently used to treat the disease is dialysis. Dialysis takes a person blood and passes it through an artificial dialyzer which removes toxins and extra fluids from the patient’s blood. In addition to the “Core curriculum for the dialysis technician: a comprehensive review of hemodialysis” dialysis can be done in centers or at the patient’s own home, most of the time it’s done in centers three times a week for four hours.

Provides leadership in the application of the nursing process by delivering quality care to the veterans as evidenced by exceeding unit benchmarks in adequacy, access and anemia management. Ms. Upham remains the units’ Vascular Access Surveillance Coordinator. Her role is to track access function and refer accordingly. In the past year the unit has had 0 episodes of clotted access leading to longevity of the access. The unit continues to maintain high standards for this indicator and due to her diligence has been awarded the End Stage renal Disease Network Fistula First Award. Fistula rates are maintained at 77-80% which is 16% above the national average of 60%. Ms. Upham recently advocated for her primary patient resulting in a better quality of life for the patient. The nephrologist was increasing all

Ms. Brantly has been a nurse for 20 years and currently works in a dialysis clinic. She is the administrator for the clinic, along with twelve other outlying clinics throughout New Mexico. The questions and responses that Ms. Brantly’s provided during her visit to class are listed.

My community assessment project focused on adults with chronic renal disease who are receiving peritoneal dialysis under the care of the Davita Dialysis Clinic located in Dothan, Alabama. This modality of artificial kidney replacement minimizes the disruption of the user’s daily life by allowing them to remove waste products from their bodies on daily basis during their ordinary sleeping hours. According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it was estimated that as many as 10% of adults or more than 20 million people in the United States may be suffering from chronic kidney disease, and in 2011 alone 113,136 of these individuals began treatment for their end stage renal disease ("National chronic kidney disease fact sheet, 2014," 2014).While chronic kidney disease is most commonly seen among individuals of African American descent and in adults over the age of 70, this harsh and deadly disease is not a respecter of age, gender, or race. More than 70,000 people die each year as a result of kidney disease, and Alabama has been ranked fifth in the nation for kidney disease occurrence ("Kidney Facts : Alabama Kidney Foundation," n.d.)

Kidney disease has become more prevalent over the years, one in nine Americans has chronic kidney disease, resulting in the need for a kidney transplant. Kidney failure is caused by variety of factors resulting in damage of the nephrons, which are the most important functioning unit of the kidneys. Kidney failure can be broken down into three groups: acute, chronic, end-stage. Once kidney failure is irreversible, dialysis or transplantation is the only method of survival. To avoid a kidney transplant, one needs to be aware of the pre-disposing factors, signs and symptoms, available treatments, and proper diet.

Acute renal failure, also known as acute kidney injury is described to be a rapid loss of

In Kidney failure cases urea, creatine, uric acids and electrolytes move from the blood to the dialysate with the net effect of lowering their concentration in the blood. RBC s WBC s and plasma proteins are too large to diffuse through the pores of the membrane. Hemodialysis patient are exposed to 120 to 130 L of water during each dialysis treatment. Small molecular weight substances can pass from the dialysate in to patient’s blood. So the purity of water used for dialysis is monitored and controlled.

Mr. Armstrong has a history of renal insufficiency and uncontrolled hypertension, along with symptoms of fatigue, pedal edema, and occasional shortness of breath. He does not have a history of trauma or obstruction to his kidneys, but his creatinine and BUN levels are currently at 3.5 mg/dl and 40 mg/dl. Normal creatinine concentration values are 0.7 to 1.2 mg/dl and normal BUN values are 10 to 20 mg/dl; this reveals that Mr. Armstrong’s kidneys are not removing wastes properly (McCance, Huether, Brashers, & Rote, 2014).  Mr. Armstrong’s history of renal insufficiency and uncontrolled hypertension is commonly found in patients diagnosed with intrarenal (intrinsic) acute renal failure. Intrarenal acute renal failure can be categorized as

There is a pair of kidneys in the human body. They are situated towards the back of the body under the ribs, just at the level of the waist where one on either side of the body. Each kidney is composed of about one million units which are called nephrons and each nephron consists of two parts: a filter which is called the glomerulus and a tubule leading out from the nephron (Cameron 1999). According to Marshall and Bangert (2008) the kidneys have three major functions. Firstly, the kidneys are excretion of waste from plasma in the blood. The second function is that, they maintain of extracellular fluid volume and composition. Lastly, the kidneys have a role in hormone synthesis.