Moving the Issue of Renal Dietitian Staffing Forward

Qualitative exploration of the experiences of renal dietitians and how they help patients with end stage kidney disease to understand the renal diet

“…Alternative educational approaches should therefore be considered when educating patients with ESKD . From a practical perspective, the educational approaches used by renal dietitians must be effective, as well as pragmatic because of the resource and time constraints experienced by renal dietitians . Alternative educational approaches could include the use of question prompt lists; reducing the cognitive burden; using dialogue boards; or conversation maps and increasing the actionability of renal diet patient education resources .…”

Moving the Issue of Renal Dietitian Staffing Forward: An International Perspective

“…Our profession continues to operate in an economic climate in which funding decisions demand that health care organizations justify expenditures, meaning ''allied'' services can be overlooked in the face of patchy evidence of effectiveness of these disciplines in improving outcomes. 6 Gutekunst supports Wolfe's comments, stating that a vital role of renal dietitians is to fight to ensure that available tools are used to protect the resources we have, continuing to strive for the best staffing ratios for the increasing number of patients who will in the future be reliant on maintenance dialysis. I wholeheartedly agree with this, and with Wolfe's suggestion that to do so, it is paramount that we not only maintain practices adhering to standards, but also rise to meet the concurrent challenge of continuing to demonstrate the effectiveness of our role in improving outcomes using research.…”

“…[2][3][4][5] Key features are the focus on the detection, prevention, and treatment of malnutrition, specifically noting the fundamental requirement of access to a dietitian in dialysis populations. I read with interest Wolfe's article examining the barriers to implementation of such guidelines 6 and his comments regarding the potential problems amounting from insufficient resources.…”

“…I wholeheartedly agree with this, and with Wolfe's suggestion that to do so, it is paramount that we not only maintain practices adhering to standards, but also rise to meet the concurrent challenge of continuing to demonstrate the effectiveness of our role in improving outcomes using research. 6 For many renal dietitians, the unique opportunity to provide evidence-based care, tailored and acceptable to our patients, is pivotal to satisfaction, which decreases without sufficient time to perform this service. 7 This situation must be avoided to prevent loss of dedicated professionals with relevant expertise in the field.…”

“…9 Renal dietitians must continue to seek innovative means to effectively utilize scarce resources and funding opportunities to enable the development of new models of care and to conduct concurrent research into their effectiveness, 10 as proposed by Wolfe. 6 Within my own workplace, commitment to the use of teleconferencing as a means to decrease travel time and increase patient access represents just such an exciting opportunity. 10 It is in this light that I join the call to arms and urge all renal dietitians to continue to be aware of threats to resources; to embrace change for the better; and, as Wolfe describes, to take every opportunity to continue to demonstrate effectiveness of these changes through research, as has always been our tradition.…”