A Study of the Effect of Self-Care Training on the Hemodialysis Patients’ Quality of Life

  Background & Objective: Hemodialysis as one of the most common methods in controlling renal insufficient brings about a lot of changes in the patients ’ method & QOL. Patient ’ s training is one of the effective factors in improving the QOL. By increasing the patient ’ s awareness about self – care & family care the patients ’ QOL can be improved. This study investigates the effect of training on hemodialysis patients ’ QOL in 2007–2008 in Maragheh.   Materials & Methods: This quasi-experimental research (pre - and post -) was carried on using randomization on 32 patients. The instrument of data collection was the questionnair including demographic data, the level of information about self care and SF36. The evaluating instrument of the level of information has been devised by researcher (researcher made questionnaire) wich the validity through the content validity and its reliability assessed by cronbach’s alpha ( a =0.68). The reliability and validity of SF36 had been previously confirmed. In the first stage (before intervention) the questionnaire was completed through an interview. After determining the educational needs and designing a self – care educational schedule based on Orem’ self – care model and consulting renal and nutrition specialists the training sessions were held teaching only one patient in each session. This training lasted for four weeks 3 to 4 half – hour and one hour sessions during the morning, after noon and night. Three months after the last day of the training, the questionnaire was used by the researcher and colleagues through interview. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistic, T-Test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation.   Results: The average quality of life and the level of information gained about self care before and after training indicated a meaningful difference (p