Sharing innovations to enhance renal fellow education in dialysis

Abstract

Dialysis care is an integral part of the practice of nephrology. Despite this, education of fellows in providing dialysis often remains rudimentary, relying on a combination of didactics and learning through experience. This runs the risk of training nephrologists who can provide dialysis care without truly being experts on the subject. In this article, a collection of novel or innovative teaching methods is presented that are meant to provide training programs with additional tools with which to improve the training of their fellows in dialysis.

Faculty Use of Active Learning in Postgraduate Nephrology Education: A Mixed-Methods Study

“…Faculty perception of poorly understood nephrology topics was in keeping with the published literature, which describes difficult areas as fluid, electrolyte, and acid-base disturbances; transplantation immunology; dialysis; and glomerulonephritis. 1 , 2 , 10 , 11 Our findings also agree with those from a survey of 100 internal medicine elective renal residents, in which ∼50% believed renal topics are more difficult to comprehend than topics in other specialties due to the dense pathophysiologic concepts and learners’ inability to apply these concepts in real-world situations. 32 An interesting and novel insight was that for faculty, their own personal learning experience and journey in nephrology help shape their understanding and their teaching style for these difficult topics.…”

“…During the past decade, there has been a rising clarion call from postgraduate nephrology education circles, including the American Society of Nephrology, for adoption of remediating instructional innovations based on active learning formats. 2 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 Active learning can be defined as an andragogical construct encompassing behavioral, cognitive, and social dimensions geared toward life-long, self-directed, reflective, and collaborative learning and real-life problem solving. 15 , 16 It is exemplified by techniques such as team-based and problem-based learning and interactive case-based lectures.…”

Have We Embraced Active Learning in Nephrology Education?

“…The literature suggests that a few individual US nephrology training programs have embraced active learning as part of their formal curriculum. [18][19][20] We believe this trend will continue to increase over the next several years. However, a cultural shift inside individual programs is necessary to achieve this goal.…”

An Introduction to dialysis education: Issues, innovations and impact

“…The authors skillfully explain how to integrate POCUS at the bedside for clinical decision‐making and also importantly the place of POCUS in nephrology training. Additionally in their manuscript, Maursetter et al present a compilation of innovative teaching methods capable of enhancing the training of fellows in renal replacement therapy as trainees may have different approaches to learning . These authors discuss several important aspects of medical education such as knowledge acquisition, clinical skills and communications training; all of which are capable of improving different facets of dialysis education for nephrology trainees.…”