Teaching an illiterate transplant patient

RSR is now several years posttransplant. He has a serum creatinine of 2.1 mg/dl and his hypertension remains borderline with additional medication. He is seen regularly by his local nephrologist and once a year at the transplant center. In RSR's case, collaboration with physicians, nurses, and home health helped this patient achieve the goal of self-care. Illiteracy was no barrier to achieving this goal when assessing the patient's skills, developing a plan that uses those skills, and working together as a team to implement the plan.