NIDDK Director's Update Summer 2012

Health Information Updates

NKDEP lesson plans help people with low-literacy understand CKD

National Kidney Disease Educatioin Program logo

The National Kidney Disease Education Program (NKDEP) has a new online tool to help health-care providers educate kidney patients with low literacy skills about managing their condition and choosing treatment options.

Providers can use the Kidney Disease Education Lesson Builder to create a series of lesson plans to help prepare people with progressive chronic kidney disease (CKD) for dialysis or transplantation. The tool was an outgrowth of the Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) and covers all of the topics required under that regulation in six lessons:

  • kidney disease basics
  • managing kidney disease
  • what happens when kidney disease gets worse
  • options for treating kidney failure
  • getting ready for treatment
  • living with kidney failure

Medicare began reimbursing physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and clinical nurse specialists for outpatient kidney disease education services in 2010. Education sessions can be one-on-one or in a group of two to 20 people, not all of whom need to be Medicare beneficiaries. Providers may conduct sessions in a physicians’s office or hospital but not a dialysis center, since the education is designed to help patients before they reach dialysis.

The Indian Health Service, along with other members of the NIDDK Kidney Interagency Coordinating Committee, collaborated with the NKDEP to create the curriculum. Each lesson includes leaning objectives, sample session starters, recommended content, clinical information for educators, patient resources, sample outcome assessment questions, and visual teaching aids. The lesson plans can be used by any health educator and adapted for their specific CKD patients.

“Although there are many existing materials on kidney failure and its treatment, there is a need for materials to educate lower-literacy patients and their families about advanced CKD and end-stage renal disease,” said NKDEP Director Dr. Andrew Narva. “These lessons were created to fill that void.” The lessons are available on the NKDEP website.

WIN creates new materials for teens

Weight-control Information Network logo

The Weight-control Information Network (WIN) recently published two colorful new tip sheets for teens. These back-to-back sheets offer tips on healthy meals and snacks, fun and easy activities, and more.

Charge Up! Healthy Meals and Snacks for Teens provides ideas for healthy eating around the clock.

Get Moving! highlights ways teens can move more and stay active, both indoors and outdoors.

To view and download these tip sheets, visit the WIN page or request printed copies by calling WIN at 1-877-946-4627.

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