World Kidney Day associated with World Donation Day
We are a suburban Nephrology Unit of four nephrologists. The Unit is led by a supervisor, who is also responsible for a medical unit. The group does thrice-daily haemodialysis on 60 dialysis patients and also 13 patients receive peritoneal dialysis.
Our Unit is in charge of managing the patients on the transplant waiting list. It is also responsible for carrying out visits for pre-dialysis and chronic kidney disease patients, in Valdera, the outskirt of Pisa.
We live as a family, realizing spontaneous initiatives, together with our patients who encourage and motivate us to overcome bureaucratic and structural obstacles.
We have a dream: a National Kidney Day that inspires organ donation, in order to encourage kidney donations.
We would like the slogan of this special day in 2016 to be: “a human being is the one who donates and who receives from his donation lives”.
We believe in the importance of reaching people’s hearts sharing the experiences of patients saved by organ donation, because it raise the awareness and boost donations.
Within this celebration, we think it is possible to create a connection between patients and sports, as well as patient and medical staff, thanks to outdoor sports games, in order to improve doctor-patient relationship. Patients, doctors and nurses face each other on the same ground.
We already realized and recorded such experience in 2014.
In our opinion, encouraging the culture of donation and the Advance healthcare directive, it will help to raise the awareness about:
- donations practice in the regional context
- The meaning and the importance of the Advance healthcare directive, explained by a lawyer
- the video of our “human will”, already shared with GIN
- organ donors and receivers experiences (Figure 1)
Moreover, during the event, it was possible to have a lunch with doctors and nurses waiting on table, before an afternoon of outdoor sports.
T-shirt specifically designed by a transplant patient were sold (Figure 2).
Besides all the activities and material e.g. printed T-shirt, the total cost of the event was less than the budget, therefore we believe that the event had a very positive outcome.
Citizens, voluntary associations , patients with their families, ANED, AIDO and healthcare companies have been invited.
Thanks to these collaborations we had a successful event, which resulted in collecting signatures for the Advance healthcare directive.
We believe that, in order to raise the attention of society about organ donation, it can be started an awareness campaign with advertising on public transportation, such as buses, painted with the slogan of the day by an artist (Figure 3).
The awareness campaign should be presented in schools, cultural associations, national and local TV channels with Social Issue Advertising, during the National Kidney Day and World Organ Donation Day celebrations.
It is just a dream, but we are sure it can come true, because helping others make us better people.
