The Kool Kidney: an educational program for school-aged children

With the increasing prevalence of renal failure and increasing demands on the health care system for renal replacement therapies, we felt a program to promote early education on kidney disease with strategies to prevent kidney failure was much-needed. The Kool Kidney project is an educational tool developed to help educate grade five students on the basic anatomy and physiology of the normal healthy kidney. The project is based upon some theory discussion as well as some "hands-on" fun. In a typical presentation, a nephrology nurse or nurses will go into the classroom and discuss the kidney. The presentation is broken down into three major parts: PART ONE: Has the presenter discuss the normal basic anatomy of the kidney as well as a simplistic overview of the function of the kidney. PART TWO: Is a brief discussion of the realities of kidney failure in language understood by children, as well as a discussion on dialysis, both hemo and peritoneal, and transplantation. PART THREE: Is the fun part. In this segment the children are allowed to come up and get some hands-on experience. We have harvested some kidneys from pigs and had them dissected and preserved by the lab at our hospital. The children are allowed to pick up and examine a kidney. To date we have presented the "Kool Kidney" to six schools and approximately 200 students. The presentations have been a fun learning experience for the students and the presenters. It is hoped that if we can alert one child to a potential renal complication and have the child seek medical attention early, or if we can prevent one unnecessary injury, the program will have been a total success.