Patients with CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease) or ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) face many barriers to remaining in or joining the workforce, especially after starting dialysis treatment. These barriers include poor employment opportunities because of disadvantaged socioeconomic status, fatigue and other symptoms of renal failure, depression and feelings of social isolation, comorbid diseases, transportation issues, potential loss of disability and/or medical assistance benefits with employment, scheduling conflicts with dialysis, and the assumption by some employers that patients on dialysis are too sick or undependable to work. This societal perception that patients with ESRD are unable to work completes a vicious cycle of low expectations for employment. For employment-preserving strategies to succeed, there must be a fundamental change in the way that health care is delivered to vulnerable populations, with improved disease management and funding for the social services required to overcome the employment disincentives. Improving access to medical care, including early evaluation by a nephrologist; availability of home dialysis modalities; proper patient preparation, including integrated pre-dialysis education models; and encouraging vocational rehabilitation are possible interventions to assist patients in rejoining or remaining in the workforce. The ProCKD project has focused on the needs and problems of patients from Spain, Turkey, Greece, and the Netherlands. More specifically the focus has been on how the working patients can continue their employment after initiation of dialysis, on how to be encouraged to continue training and education, and on how unemployed patients can be assisted in finding meaningful work. Understanding the factors influencing employability can help patients have a more fulfilling professional life. All the project information is available on the web www.prockd.eu, created to facilitate its dissemination. The partners have shared good relevant practises and promote educational and professional reintegration of adults with chronic kidney disease by organising free webinars. The ProCKD project has served as an educational program for adults with kidney disease and their caregivers. The good practices shared have been uploaded on the project website: www.prockd.eu/planning/ and on social media. EPALE and social media have been used as well for the dissemination of the project. The work of each respective partner has been combined with joint work at the three transnational Project Meetings (TMP), viewed as milestones. Partners have jointly worked in designing, developing, and evaluating the project. Each TPM has kicked off a focus group involving kidney patients and their families. Co-production has been achieved by an inclusive working session with kidney patients and their view on employment based on their experience. ALCER has been the project coordinator, but each partner and associated partner has played an active role contributing to the successful implementation of the ProCKD project. Our academic partners Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Istanbul Gelisim University has been responsible, among other things, for the evaluation and the co-hosting of meetings and webinars. Detailed information of each activity can be found on the web: https://prockd.eu/sample/meetings-and-events/ Two trainings have supported the capacity building of the stakeholders thus helping the development of the necessary patient competences. C1 and C2 learning activities has been an opportunity to develop a community of further support for the professional integration of patients and for their caregivers' education. The training activities in Greece and the Netherlands have aimed at enhancing on the one hand the potential of the unemployed patients for employability and professional reintegration and on the other hand the capability of the working patients to keep their jobs. There can be found the relevant news of the project in the newsletter disseminated during the project and after each activity: https://prockd.eu/development/ The project has achieved the objective of sharing best practices among partners and disseminating them among patients and family caregivers through the prockd.eu website and social networks, facilitating a positive impact on kidney patients and their families to achieve an improvement in the kidney. patients’ quality of life due to their better professional and personal adaptation and an improvement of the relationship between patients and their family caregivers as a consequence of the above. Outputs and results achieved during the project: - The project’s web www.prockd.eu. Includes all the project information and was created to facilitate its dissemination during and after the project. - The newsletters. https://prockd.eu/development/ The newsletters were disseminated during the project and after each activity. They include all the relevant news of the project development. - The good practices shared among partners and disseminated: www.prockd.eu/planning/ - Detailed information of each activity: https://prockd.eu/sample/meetings-and-events/
The ProCKD project has focused on the needs and problems of patients, specifically on how working patients can continue their employment after initiation of dialysis, on how to be encouraged to continue training and education, and on how unemployed patients can be assisted in finding meaningful work and how the factors influencing employability can help patients have a more fulfilling professional life. For employment-preserving strategies to succeed, there must be a fundamental change in the way that health care is delivered to vulnerable populations, with improved disease management and funding for the social services required to overcome the employment disincentives. Improving access to medical care, including early evaluation by a nephrologist; availability of home dialysis modalities; proper patient preparation, including integrated pre-dialysis education models; and encouraging vocational rehabilitation are possible interventions to assist patients in rejoining or remaining in the workforce.
Patients with CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease) or ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) face many barriers to remaining in or joining the workforce, especially after starting dialysis treatment. These barriers include poor employment opportunities because of disadvantaged socioeconomic status, fatigue and other symptoms of renal failure, depression, feelings of social isolation, comorbid diseases, transportation issues, potential loss of disability and/or medical assistance benefits with employment, scheduling conflicts with dialysis, and the assumption by some employers that patients on dialysis are too sick or undependable to work. This societal perception that patients with ESRD are unable to work completes a vicious cycle of low expectations for employment. The ProCKD project has focused on the needs and problems of patients from Spain, Turkey, Greece, and the Netherlands, specifically on how working patients can continue their employment after initiation of dialysis, on how to be encouraged to continue training and education, and on how unemployed patients can be assisted in finding meaningful work and how the factors influencing employability can help patients have a more fulfilling professional life.