A successful self-participation experience empowers patients to adapt to living with hemodialysis. However, few studies regarding the subjective experiences of such patient participation have been conducted. This study’s purpose was to describe hemodialysis patients’ perspectives on integrating hemodialysis into a new life regarding self-participation experience. A qualitative study using the grounded theory method was applied. Thirty-two well-adaptive hemodialysis Taiwanese patients attended in-depth interviews. “Integrating hemodialysis into a new life journey” was identified as the core category guiding the entire self-participation experience of hemodialysis patients. The three antecedent themes were “Sense of worthlessness”, “Life is still worth living”, and “Friendly and joyful atmosphere of the hemodialysis room”. Once the patients went through the three antecedent themes, they gradually began making efforts to participate more fully in their hemodialysis. Within this participation experience, the hemodialysis patients exhibited these four interactive themes: “Overcoming one’s predicament”, “Integrating self-care skills into my life”, “Resuming previous roles and tasks”, and “Adapting to independent living”. Finally, most adaptive patients master the hemodialysis life. Encouraging patients to discover that their life is worth living and providing a friendly and joyful atmosphere in hemodialysis units are the keys to facilitating patients’ self-participation more fully.

It is crucial to set up personal health counselling for perimenopausal women in clinics and develop information technology systems to support menopausal women in the technological era.

Taiwan had the second highest number globally of end-stage renal disease patients undergoing treatment in 2018. A meta-analysis of Chen et al. (2021) showed the incidence and mortality rates of COVID-19 were 7.7% and 22.4%, respectively. Few studies have explored the effects of patients’ self-participation and perceptions of hemodialysis on their quality of life. This study aimed to explore the factors related to hemodialysis patients’ quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study was a descriptive correlational study. Patients were recruited (n = 298) from the hemodialysis unit of a medical center in northern Taiwan. Variables included patients’ sociodemographic, psychological, spiritual, and clinical characteristics (i.e., perceived health level, comorbidities, hemodialysis duration, weekly frequency, transportation, and accompaniment during hemodialysis), perceptions of hemodialysis, self-participation in hemodialysis, and health-related quality of life (KDQOL-36 scale). Data were analyzed using descriptive and bivariate and multivariate linear regression. Multivariate linear regression, after adjusting for covariates, showed that anxiety, self-perceived health status, two vs. four comorbidities, and self-participation in hemodialysis were significantly associated with quality of life. The overall model was significant and accounted for 52.2% (R2 = 0.522) of the variance in quality of life during hemodialysis (adjusted R2 = 0.480). In conclusion, the quality of life of hemodialysis patients with mild, moderate, or severe anxiety was poorer, whereas that of patients with fewer comorbidities, higher self-perceived health status, and higher self-participation in hemodialysis was better.