Miss Laura Cook1
1Queensland Health, Bundaberg, Australia
Biography:
Laura is an early career clinical nurse who has been working in the renal speciality for the last six years in regional Queensland providing dialysis, pre-dialysis and kidney supportive care treatments. She is in her second year of her Master of Nurse Practitioner with QUT and previously has attained post graduate certificates from UTAS in Renal Nursing as well as Therapeutic Medication Management. She enjoys the long-term relationships developed with patients who have chronic kidney disease and is interested in biochemistry, symptom management and kidney supportive care
Abstract:
Background: Patients with end stage kidney disease (ESKD) who choose supportive care are supported to slow disease progression, manage symptoms and complications of their disease but often wonder about their life expectancy. These patients are typically older, frailer and have more comorbidities than dialysis cohorts. It is well known that a high symptom burden impairs quality of life. Historically, data collection in ESKD patients has focused on those treated with dialysis and their survival with limited research into prognostics of those on kidney supportive care pathways. Aim: This pilot research study aims identify if there is a relationship between symptom burden and time to death and elicit increased knowledge of survival time statistics so that discussions about treatment modalities as well as prognostics in ESKD can be improved and tailored to individual patients. Methods: The pilot observational retrospective cross-sectional study will analyse routinely collected data from one regional hospital’s outpatient kidney clinic to analyse approximately 150 patient reported Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale- Renal edition (IPOS-Renal) scores and time to death from date of score completion in the kidney supportive care patient population over the past five years. Secondary analysis will only include eGFR and age. Results: Results are not yet available as principal investigator is awaiting independent ethics committee approval to commence data collection and analysis. Expected to be completed by May 2026.