[Therapeutic education program should be adapted to the specificity of chronic kidney disease]

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an evolutive disease. In its early stages the disease often goes asymptomatic and unrecognized. For CKD patients, disease awareness is usually late, with the occurrence of the first symptoms. In more advanced stages, CKD implies massive consequences on patient's life. Extrarenal substitution methods (such as hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis or transplantation) are presented to the patient, who is facing a very difficult choice, inducing major changes in his lifestyle.

In this article, we share the adaptation process of a therapeutic education program in nephrology, presenting its specificity and the encountered difficulties. We propose to develop an educative program adapted to patient's needs, which differs according to CKD stage.

Therapeutic patient education (TPE) has become a need in the care of CKD patients, even at early stages of the disease. TPE allows to prepare the patients, favoring autonomy and shared decision making about his disease, in collaboration with healthcare workers and patient's relatives.