Why do we need patient and carer involvement?
Many units involve patients in designing and implementing interventions to improve the home dialysis pathway, for example as peer educators during treatment education sessions, or as peer supporters. In these instances, patients are powerful drivers for change.
Kidney teams are encouraged to involve patients and carers as part of their quality improvement team, and invite patients and carers to learning or improvement events as participants, guest speakers and facilitators.
What does it feel like to be involved in quality improvement as a patient?
The renal team at the hospital have been brilliant, and we cannot praise them enough. However, talking to other patients, discussing experiences, sharing tips and practical ideas is an added bonus, and when I was invited to attend the KQuIP meetings I had no hesitation in accepting...In our opinion, involving patients in change and quality improvement adds a valuable new dimension to the project.
Key learning from DAYLife so far
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Ensure the infrastructure to enable and support patient involvement is built into the project plan – for example reimbursement schemes, recruitment, training and support
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Linking interested patients up with schemes such as the Kidney Patient Involvement Network (KPIN) for training and mentorship could support patients to be meaningfully involved in quality improvement
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Linking healthcare professionals up with schemes such as KPIN could support healthcare professionals and programme teams to meaningfully involve patients in quality improvement
