Using DAVE as a model to go beyond treatment compliance with persons receiving renal replacement therapy

DAVE is an acronym for Dialogue, Accept, Validate, and Enact conceptualized for the purpose of helping nephrology social workers assist persons with End-Stage Renal Disease take an active role in making treatment decisions, especially the decision to comply with a treatment regimen. As a model, DAVE is a summation of contemporary social work practice including views on empowerment, the Strengths Perspective, and the Problem-Solving Process. DAVE attunes the nephrology social worker and the dialysis recipient to an attitude of mutual trust, respect, and collaboration essential to helping dialysis recipients make important treatment decisions.