Freedom and confinement: patients' experiences of life with home haemodialysis

Patients with chronic end stage renal disease need dialysis to survive; however, they also need a treatment that suits their life situation. It is important that healthcare providers provide reliable, up-to-date information about different dialysis treatment options. Since home haemodialysis is a relatively new treatment, it is necessary to gather more knowledge about what the treatment entails from the patient's perspective. The aim of this study was to describe patients' experiences of having home haemodialysis. To gain access to the patients' experiences, they were asked to write narratives, which describe both their good and bad experiences of life with the treatment. The narratives were analysed with a qualitative method. The results of this analysis are subdivided into five themes: freedom to be at home and control their own treatment, feeling of being alone with the responsibility, changes in the home environment, need for support, and security and well-being with home haemodialysis. The conclusion is that home haemodialysis provides a certain level of freedom, but the freedom is limited as the treatment itself is restrictive. In order to improve patients' experiences with home haemodialysis, more research based on patients' experiences is needed and it is necessary to involve the patients in the development of the care.