Hyperkalemia and Barriers to Self Management

Running head: HYPERKALEMIA AND BARRIERS TO SELF MANAGEMENT
HYPERKALEMIA AND BARRIERS TO SELF MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

1HYPERKALEMIA AND BARRIERS TO SELF MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Hyperkalemia is a common clinical condition in patients suffering from end stage renal
diseases. Due to the impact on the cardiac conductivity, hyperkalemia has become a topic of
concern among the physicians. This condition is mainly caused by the overabundance of the
potassium in the extracellular compartments. It occurs when the serum potassium concentration
goes above 5.5 mm (Putcha and Allon 2007). Some of the common cause of the hyperkalemia in
patients involve the excessive uptake of the potassium through dietary supplements and
occasionally via intravenous fluids. Treatment of Hyperkalemia involves stabilization of the
myocardium, hemodialysis, administration of the intravenous insulin or albuterol, bicarbonate
and epinephrine (Putcha and Allon 2007). Removal of the potassium can be done by the cation
exchange resins, bicarbonate infusion and dialysis. The prevention of hyperkalemia involves
dietary restrictions and adherence to medications.
Exploration of the self-management of the end stage renal diseases is important as they
are faced with a number of complex treatments, restrictions, dependency on the technology and
uncertainty about life (Reid et al. 2011). Through the stages of renal diseases, people have to
modify their diets and life style managing with medications and appointments, including dialysis.
The burden of the renal replacement therapies also have considerable demands on the health care
resources. Hence self-management of the disease is necessary. But several barriers restrict the
slef management of Hyperkalemia.

2HYPERKALEMIA AND BARRIERS TO SELF MANAGEMENT
Self-management education and promotion
Although education about hyperkalemia is provided to the patients at the time of the short
clinical interactions but interactions and normally the patients are left to take their own day to
day decisions and hence self-management is necessary. Health education regarding the
hyperkalemia can be provided by conducting health promotion programs with proper target
audiences and health promotion strategies. However there are certain barriers to the education
and promotion of the self-management of the disease.
Patient barriers to education and the promotion of the self- management of hyperkalemia
Barriers to patient education and promotion about the self-management are the low line
awareness about hyperkalemia, health literacy and access to information on hyperkalemia.
Low understanding about the disease
The general population have a very low level of understanding of the role of the kidney in
the relative health of the person as well as other organs. In patients having hypertension, the
concerns about end stage renal disease is much less as compared with the concerns about cancer
or cardiovascular problems (Kovesdy 2017).
Selection of dialysis modality is also dependable on the patient. In spite of the cost and
time savings, flexibility schedules and control over the treatment the use of the home dialysis is
low due to factors like difficulties in reimbursement of the finance with the medical insurers and
social concerns like non adherence to the treatment regimen, lack of suitable housing (Harwood
and Clark 2012). Furthermore the family members of the patient might not have that cognitive
capability to carry out a home based dialysis.