Discovering the culture of haemodialysis units: an ethnography

There is an increasing renal population but a lack of resources available to ensure that every renal patient receives the maximum benefit from Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT). The aim of this paper is to illustrate how understanding the culture of dialysis units will facilitate the provision of more therapeutic, patient centred care. This paper describes briefly the research study that was undertaken to uncover the culture which is in dialysis units but as yet undiscovered and therefore not valued. Once this culture is better understood and valued both patients and the health care teams will be facilitated to work towards the common goal of better treatment outcomes.