Kidney Transplation: Its Enhancement by a Rehabilitation Centered Counseling Group

Kidney transplantation alone at the Howard University Transplant Center had been unsuccessful in restoring the quality of life to renal failure patients. Consequently, a group evolved consisting of 4-12 patients and 3 co-leaders, physician (transplant surgeon), nurse (dialysis nurse), rehabilitation counselor, and a group work consultant. This group met for one hour weekly and discussed anxiety, impotence, informed consent, death and many other topics. The group assisted patients in obtaining vocational rehabilitation, coping with end stage renal disease and hemodialysis, and improving patient to patient and patient to health care provider interaction. A particularly high risk group “heroin addicts renal disease sufferers”, were noteworthy in that 7 of 13 of them were fully rehabilitated 1-2 years after transplantation.

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Providers’ View on the First Kidney Transplantation Center in Ethiopia: Experience From Past to Present

Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology ◽

10.1177/23333928211018335 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 233339282110183

Author(s):

Tariku Shimels ◽

Abrham Getachew ◽

Mekdim Tadesse ◽

Alison Thompson

Keyword(s):

Kidney Transplantation ◽

Renal Transplant ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Study Data ◽

Care Providers ◽

Transplant Center ◽

Transplantation Center ◽

Stage Renal Disease ◽

End Stage

Introduction: Transplantation is the optimal management for patients with end-stage renal disease. In Ethiopia, the first national kidney transplantation center was opened at St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College in September 2015. The aim of this study was to explore providers’ views and experiences of the past to present at this center. Methods: A qualitative study design was employed from 1st November to 15th December, 2019. To ensure that appropriate informants would provide rich study data, 8 health care providers and top management members were purposefully chosen for in-depth interviews. A maximum variation sampling method was considered to include a representative sample of informants. Interviews were digitally audio-recorded, and transcribed verbatim. Transcribed data was coded and analyzed using Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) Minor Lite software and Microsoft-Excel. Result: The participants (5 males and 3 females) approached were from different departments of the renal transplant center, and the main hospital. Eight main themes and 18 sub-themes were generated initially from all interviews totaling to 109 index codes. Further evaluation and recoding retained 5 main themes, and 14 sub-themes. The main themes are; challenges experienced during and after launching the center, commitment, sympathy and satisfaction, outcomes of renal transplant, actions to improve the quality of service, and how the transplant center should operate. Providers claim that they discharge their responsibilities through proper commitment and compassion, paying no attention to incentive packages. They also explained that renal transplantation would have all the outcomes related to economic, humanistic and clinical facets. Conclusion and Recommendation: A multitude of challenges were faced during and after the establishment of the first renal transplant center in Ethiopia. Providers discharge their responsibility through a proper compassion for patients. Concerned stakeholders should actively collaborate to improve the quality of renal transplant services in the center.

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