Addressing the challenges of renal anaemia: how nurses can make a difference

Nephrology nurses play a central and wide-ranging role in renal care. However, they have inadequate time to manage their responsibilities as patient volume increases due to earlier diagnosis and improved survival, and patient care becomes more complex. The challenge to achieve and maintain target haemoglobin levels with current agents compounds nursing workload. Early recognition and treatment of anaemia, a multidisciplinary approach and patient management algorithms can improve outcomes and nursing time utilisation. Innovative erythropoietic agents produce stable haemoglobin levels at extended administration intervals, offering time-savings. Such initiatives may allow nurses more time to focus on other aspects of patient care.