NKF Nurse and Technician program offers certification pre-course, examines infection control risks

The Nurse and Technician Program committee has developed a dynamic program for the National Kidney Foundation 2016 Spring Clinical Meetings. Sessions have been designed to provide the most up-to-date information, techniques, and research for nephrology nurses and dialysis technicians.

SCM16 will begin with the Pre-Conference day. The Certification course is designed to offer the attendee an interactive overview of dialysis and CDN certification, and will include concepts of kidney disease with an overview of hemodialysis (the dialysis machine, vascular access, complications/interventions, and water treatment). Other topics include peritoneal dialysis, transplantation, and the benefits of certification, its requirements and application.

The Committee is pleased to welcome back Sam Trevino as a featured speaker at the meeting. Attendees are invited to hear a patient’s journey from glomerular nephritis to hemodialysis, to living related donor transplant, all while maintaining an active lifestyle as a teacher and soccer coach. Sam was diagnosed with glomerular nephritis at just 13 years old, and started in-center hemodialysis as a 19-year-old college student. Seven years later, with his wife Lacye at his side, he opted to try home dialysis. In 2008, he suffered a near fatal blood clot. The experience convinced him to initiate a transplant workup. He will tell you the rest of this truly inspirational story at SCM16.

Also speaking on the nephrology nurse and technician program will be Priti R. Patel, MD, MPH. She serves as the Dialysis Activity Leader within the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Patel has been instrumental in supervising and managing numerous outbreaks of health care-related infections and other adverse events in dialysis centers. She has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters. Dr. Patel is the co-founder of CDC’s Dialysis Bloodstream Infection Prevention Collaborative. She will be speaking on hepatitis lab interpretation and vaccination, pneumonia, and prevention of bloodstream infections.

These speakers are only few of the highly respected experts who are scheduled to present during the SCM16. Additional topics include bone, mineral and protein update; nursing research; eligibility for kidney transplants; treatment options education, and government initiatives.