NIV Congres

Introduction: In our experience, live kidney donors and their care providers often indicate that cure and care were not in line with the donors’ biomedical and contextual factors. “Kidney donor-centered care” (NiCe) is an intervention to align this care. NiCe defines how nurse practitioners (NPs) provide patient-centered care to kidney donors and therefore substitute the care given by the surgical residents.

Purpose: Aim of this study was to determine whether the implementation of NiCe, which connects the care and support with the biomedical and contextual factors for live kidney donors, would result in an increased patient satisfaction.

Methods: The NiCe study was a quantitative study, with a qualitative component. The control group (N=27) consisted of donors admitted between October 16^th 2011 and February 12^th 2012 and the intervention group (N=26) of donors between February 13^th 2012 and April 30^th 2012. Three different methods of data collection were used. A validated four-point Likert scale questionnaire of Consumer Quality Index was used to measure patient satisfaction. Donors’ medical files were screened for complications and mortality. The qualitative part consisted of a log book in which professionals could report their experiences in order to evaluate the process.

Results: The care by the surgical team was significant better appreciated in the intervention group versus the control group (2.87 vs 3.3, p<0.05). Also the care was more aligned after the implementation of NiCe (p<0.05).There were no significant differences regarding complications, readmissions, communication and care by NPs and nurses. According to the care providers involved in this study, there were no difficulties in the process of NiCe implementation.

Conclusion: A greater patient satisfaction was reached in the intervention group. Therefore the most important recommendation for the future is to continue NiCe for live kidney donors.