This is a reflection on my time spent with the home dialysis team. Reflecting on my time with the home dialysis team, I feel a great sense of growth as I am able to develop my knowledge in dialysis. I was able to shadow amazing professionals, who gave me a good back ground on home dialysis and the benefits which has deepened my understanding of patient care and the importance of personalized treatment plans. I learnt that patients are able to dialysis at home and do it themselves. However, in order to dialysis at home themselves they have to be competent in cleaning their own dialysis line (central venous line). I was able to shadow the nurse in teaching the patient how to clean the line in the best and most sterile way as possible. The patients have to attend the training at the hospital for at least 3 weeks. This means the patient has to attend 3x a week for the next 3 weeks at the hospital to be shown how to clean their own line, be shown the dialysis machine and connect themselves.

Patients on home dialysis get delivery’s and are able to come into the hospital to collect stock. Once the patient is competent and the nurse and the patient are happy for them to dialysis independently at home, the nurse visits the patient once every 6 weeks to carry out assessments such as, relevant blood tests and to check their competency’s again. Personally I found home dialysis to have many benefits such as, more flexibility and better health outcomes. I was also able to speak to a patient on home dialysis and she said she is able to go on holidays now where as before when she had to come into the hospital 3x a week this was hard for her. Overall, I felt I had a positive experience with the home dialysis team and spending my time with the nurses and patients has contributed to my learning.