Patient and Machine Monitoring and Assessment

One of the most important jobs for healthcare professionals working in dialysis is to monitor the patient and the dialysis equipment. For this reason, it is imperative to understand the scope of practice of healthcare professionals in your state as well as how they are supervised with respect to dialysis. this information is described by the Nurse Practice Acts. In some states, for instance, dialysis technicians can perform certain tasks such as infusing normal saline intravenously for priming and managing hypotension, injecting intradermal lidocaine before insertion of the dialysis needles in the vascular access and administering intravenous heparin for anticoagulation.

This resource walks through the complications that can arise during a treatment and the steps required to finalize the treatment, as well as the information necessary for proper documentation.

After completing this resource, learners will be able to:

• Recognize the clinical complications that can arise during dialysis
• Explain the technician's role in helping to alleviate any complications
• Describe intradialytic assessment and patient monitoring
• Discuss the process of discontinuation of dialysis