The selected phenomenon is dialysis prevention. I have a particular interest in the phenomenon for two reasons. First, I have been a dialysis nurse for more than 30 years, which is why I have a professional interest in the phenomenon. Second, I lost a husband who was on dialysis for seven months. I know that dialysis for chronic patients is rarely associated with favorable outcomes, which makes me wonder how one can avoid being put on dialysis.
Two concepts were identified for the phenomenon. The first concept is self-care, which is one of the means of protection from being put on dialysis. In her self-care deficit theory, Orem (1991) defines self-care as “the practice of activities that individuals initiate and perform on their own behalf in maintaining life, health, and well-being (p. 117). The second concept is patient education, which is defined as “the practice of informing patients about their health, wellness, treatment plans, potential outcomes, and other information critical to the patient experience” (Heath, 2017, para 3). The purpose of patient education is to encourage the autonomy of patients, which implies that patient education is expected to promote self-care. This idea is supported by the theory of self-care deficiency, which states that nursing aims to help people perform self-care practices (Orem, 1991). The rationale for using these constructs is that patient education can be used to promote self-management practices of chronic kidney disease, and to reduce the chance of kidney failure, which is an indication for dialysis (Peng et al., 2019).
There is a practical way to demonstrate a relationship between these two concepts using the example of dialysis prevention. An experimental study can be created in which a control group will not be given patient education about self-care practices for the prevention of dialysis, while the other group will be given such education. Adherence to self-care practices can be measured before and after the intervention to measure the effect.
References
Heath, S. (2017). The difference between patient education and health literacy. Patient Engagement Hit.
Orem, D.E. (1991). Nursing: concepts of practice (4th ed.). Mosby.
Peng, S., He, J., Huang, J., Lun, L., Zeng, J., Zeng, S.,… & Wu, Y. (2019). Self-management interventions for chronic kidney disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC nephrology, 20(1), 1-13.