April is National Donate Life Month (NDLM), a time dedicated to encouraging Americans to register as organ, eye and tissue donors and to celebrating those who have given life by donating. As physicians, we see patients from across the kidney disease spectrum, from early stage to end stage kidney failure to transplant eligibility. Dialysis is an effective way of treating end stage renal disease, but most patients do not see it as their only long-term choice. The greatest gift we can give our patients is to encourage them to consider transplantation and to help them navigate the sometimes-turbulent waters of transplant evaluation.

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This is a guest blog post by registered dietitian Sara Colman.

Knowing what to eat on a kidney diet can be complicated, and as kidney care providers we know how much support our patients need in planning meals and keeping up with nutritional goals. It’s important to provide an array of resources and tools to help patients achieve the highest quality of life possible.

For starters, patients can find education resources online. DaVita.com offers articles about kidney disease and dialysis treatments, as well as an entire section on the chronic kidney diet, including hundreds of kidney-friendly recipes.

Whether patients are pre-dialysis or currently on hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis, they will find articles to help explain the kidney diet for their needs. Of course, there is no substitute for an in-person meeting with a renal dietitian.

Other kidney diet resources include the following:

• National Kidney Foundation
• American Kidney Fund
• MedlinePlus
• WebMD

Besides learning from educational articles, patients can use tools to help with meal planning and nutritional goals. For example, DaVita Diet Helper allows patients to plan meals, download suggested menus, create recipes, store a database of favorite foods and track daily food intake to see how it measures against goals for potassium, phosphorus, sodium and protein. The nutrition tracker and shopping list are available on mobile devices, too—perfect for patients on the go.

Even with the array of valuable tools, face-to-face consultations with patients about their diet are invaluable. It’s up to us as care providers to be the support team behind all our patients and their nutritional health. Help your patients stay on track with these resources and tools.

Sara Colman, R.D.N., C.D.E. blogs regularly at Kidney Diet Tips. Follow her on Twitter at @SaraColmanRD.

The end stage renal disease program has a 40-year legacy of providing life-sustaining care to countless vulnerable patients with otherwise fatal kidney disease. There has been an intense focus on aspects of care delivered in the dialysis center, including anemia management, renal bone disease treatment, nutrition planning and the transition to vascular access. These critically important aspects of care must be provided at the highest level of quality.
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