Renal Staff Nurse Band 5

Job/Role Summary

• Providing Haemodialysis treatment for patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD).
• Management of complications of CKD e.g. anaemia and Renal bone disease.
• Patient education and promotion regarding life with a chronic illness.
• Psychological care of patients and families.
• Taking bloods and gathering data on a monthly basis to help analyse adequacy of dialysis treatment.
• Co ordination of patients and investigations to get onto transplant list.
• Identification of potential individuals who would benefit from Provision of training for home based dialysis

Specific qualifications and experience required

• E Grade job required 2 years experience within the last 5 years in renal setting or renal certificate.
• NMC Registration Part 1

Career Milestones

Competed BSc (Hons) Degree in Nursing in 1998. Following this I took up post in a surgical ward but moved to work in the Dialysis unit within a year. Over the next two years I gained experience in a variety of renal settings including general nephrology, transplant, acute dialysis and surgical section. I then moved to one of the regional satellite units where I developed my experience of renal patients and organisational skills. During this time I became a mentor and honed skills in dealing with aspects peritoneal dialysis. I then saw the opportunity to work closer to home in a new unit as one of the founding staff members, helping to develop renal services in the area.

What attracted you to this job?

• Being involved in the setting up of a new regional unit- developing the policies and procedures.
• Education of Multidisciplinary team on the requirements that the new service would require.
• Family friendly working hours.
• Meeting new people and training of new staff members in this new field of practice.

Enjoyable aspects of the job/role

• Providing care and life saving treatment for patients with CKD
• Working within a nursing team and MDT team
• Feedback from patients and families- especially following successful transplants

Important success factors

• Empathy with patients
• Technically competent as there is a lot of equipment and computers
• Good Communication Skills are essential as communication is on so many levels, patient, family, MDT, Dr’s, Other dialysis units, other wards when patients are admitted, Ambulance service, voluntary drivers

Advice for those considering the type of job/role?

There is a lot to learn, change happens very regularly. You need support of a good team to meet the challenges; we are always checking and rechecking with each other as nurses. Constantly consulting on the best direction to take. It helps to be able to cope with seeing qualities of blood passing through the machine. Empathy and understanding that haemodialysis is a very invasive treatment, that affects all aspects of the patients lifestyle. You need to have a good understanding of policies and procedures that underpin the work practices. Always be keen to learn something new.

Key skills that can be gained within this job/role?

• Teaching skills- educating patients, family members, students and new staff nurses
• Organisational skills-ability to sort out investigations and results to ensure adequacy of dialysis and joining transplant list
• Clinical skills- Needling and care of fistulas & Care of central venous Catheters
• Technical Skills- operation of specialised equipment.

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