Deborah Girone, R.N.,
B.S.N. |
As anyone with end stage renal disease will attest, people on dialysis have multiple medical teams providing and planning their care. They see their nephrologist regularly and visit their dialysis center several times a week. If they are considering a kidney transplant, they also have a team of physicians, nurses, and social workers evaluating and coordinating their opportunity for a transplant.
“Ideally, all of these individuals are working together to bring the patient to their goal of transplantation,” says Deborah Girone, R.N., B.S.N., Pre-transplant Coordinator at Saint Barnabas Medical Center’s Renal and Pancreas Transplant Center.
Many patients are referred to Saint Barnabas by their dialysis team’s transplant surgeon designee. As Ms. Girone explains, the role of the transplant surgeon designee and the dialysis team, in general, in the transplant process goes beyond the referral. “The dialysis center staff sees the patient three days a week, so they are on top of that individual’s current medical condition. While those of us on the transplant team are planning for the future, the patient’s dialysis team meets that individual’s ongoing health care needs in the present. It requires ongoing communication, education and collaboration to bring a patient to a successful transplant,” she adds.
The transplant team is a multidisciplinary group of physicians, surgeons, nurses, and social workers who take a patient through the entire transplant process. They coordinate the necessary medical and psychosocial evaluations, perform the transplant, and oversee follow-up care after transplant surgery.
“Managing a chronic illness is very challenging for both patients and families,” says Ms. Girone. “Social workers at both the dialysis and transplant centers can help patients and family members tackle social or emotional problems, as well as discuss the unique financial issues that often arise,” she adds. “Their assistance to patients preparing for transplantation and adjusting to life after transplantation is invaluable.”
The dialysis and transplant teams work together throughout all stages
of the patient’s care. “It is truly a shared responsibility,” reflects
Ms. Girone. “We all want the patient to have a better quality
of life.”
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