Kidney supportive care and advanced care planning

Course Overview
This course is aimed at all healthcare professionals, who care for kidney patients, it aims to provide staff with an understanding of kidney supportive care as a treatment option and discusses the purpose and benefits of advanced care planning.
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  • Written by experts
  • Introductory
  • 100% online
  • Video content
  • Multiple choice quiz
  • Approx. 90 mins. to complete
  • Completion certificate
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About this course
Around half of patients who enter end stage kidney disease are older than 65 years with significant associated comorbidities, where regrettably, for many, transplantation is not an option. It is therefore important that we develop the skills and knowledge to support this area of kidney care, allowing such patients to receive the best holistic care including excellent symptom control, frailty management and good pre-emptive advance care planning allowing a focus on quality of life.
This course is aimed at all healthcare professionals, who care for kidney patients, it aims to provide staff with an understanding of kidney supportive care as a treatment option and discusses the purpose and benefits of advanced care planning. .

Module 1a: Kidney Supportive Care in advanced kidney disease
By participating and completing this course you will:
  • Have an understanding and awareness of kidney supportive care as a treatment option
  • Be aware of the data on survival, quality of life and symptom burden of patients with advanced kidney disease
  • Be able to identify patients that may benefit from kidney supportive care
  • Gain an understanding of the importance of ‘signposting’

Module 1b: Advanced Care Planning (ACP) in advanced kidney disease
By participating and completing this course you will:
  • Develop an understanding and awareness of Advanced Care Planning (ACP)
  • Be able to identify patients that may benefit from an ACP conversation
  • Gain confidence in applying the knowledge around ACP into practice
  • Have the skills to initiate an ACP

Course authors and designers

Sarah Mackie

Lead Nurse for Acute Kidney Injury, King’s College Hospital,
Sarah is a senior nurse with 30 years’ experience, predominately in the field of kidney care, with a focus on maintaining excellent standards of care in busy and challenging environments

Dr Katie Vinen

Kidney Consultant
Katie leads the advanced kidney care service at Kings College Hospital and also works in dialysis. As the co- lead for the London Kidney Network Supportive Care Work Stream, Katie passionately believes that good patient information, high quality staff training and a truly holistic approach will provide the excellent kidney care that our older and frailer kidney patients so deserve.

Dr Heather Brown

Kidney Consultant,
Heather is a consultant Nephrologist at Guys hospital leading in the advanced kidney care clinic and renal supportive care service. As co-chair of the London Kidney Network supportive care workstream, she is committed to driving service improvement to improve the quality of care of older patients with advanced kidney disease.

Dr Dominique Wakefield

Consultant in Palliative Medicine
Dominique is the Service Lead for Palliative and End of life care, an integrated service providing specialist expertise across Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals and the communities of Lambeth and Southwark as part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Stuart Deora

Renal Registrar, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals
Stuart is currently a ST7 Chief Registrar at Epsom and St Helier Hospital, with a keen interest in Kidney Supportive Care, Young Adult Nephrology, Healthcare Equity and Interventional Nephrology.

Paul Gillary

Learning Technologist | BSc, MSc
Paul is a Senior Learning Technologist with expertise in web development, content creation, and software development. He collaborates with King's Health Partners (KHP) to design and develop courses in medical education and is particularly adept at crafting online and blended learning programs, ensuring effective and engaging educational experiences.

Dr Tina Thompson

Renal Registrar, Imperial College Healthcare, NHS Trust
Tina Thomson is a Clinical Research Fellow at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. She is currently pursuing MD(Res). Her interests are in transplantation, supportive care and clinical trials. She firmly believes and actively participates in peer and patient education to provide holistic care to people with chronic kidney disease.

Dr Hatty Douthwaite

Renal Registrar, King’s College Hospital
Hatty is currently an ST6 in Renal and General medicine at KCH. This role followed a year as KCH Chief Registrar and prior to that a PhD in Transplant immunology at GSTT. She also holds Renal & GIM trainee representative roles in South London, also for NHSBT KAG & is Lead kidney representative for BTPT.

This course was developed in collaboration with the LKN Supportive Care Workstream.