Influence of transitional care on the self-care ability of kidney transplant recipients after discharge.

Background: Renal transplantation is the optimal treatment for end-stage renal diseases. However, low self-care ability after discharge seriously reduces the postoperative quality of life and decreases the survival of both patients and grafts. Transitional care entails a broad range of services designed to ensure health care continuity from hospital to home. Continuous nursing service for patients with kidney transplantation can meet the nursing needs of patients, heighten patients' disease knowledge and self-care ability, guarantee patients' quality of life, and improve the survival rate of the kidney and patient in general.

Methods: A total of 100 kidney transplant recipients were enrolled by using a simple random sampling method. A transitional care team was established to offer transitional care to the discharged patients via telephone calls, outpatient visits, family visits, and kidney transplant patients' clubs. The self-designed disease knowledge questionnaire and the exercise of self-care agency (ESCA) scale were used to evaluate and compare the patients' conditions before and after the implementation of transitional care.

Results: The patient's knowledge about self-monitoring, correct medication, reasonable diet, and proper exercise, along with their self-care abilities, were significantly improved after the implementation of transitional care (all P<0.05).

Conclusions: Transitional care can improve the patient's disease knowledge and self-care ability and thus increase the patient's quality of life.