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Self-Management

Self-management is an important part of daily life for people living with chronic kidney disease.

It relates to steps a person can take to live well with one or more chronic conditions. This includes building confidence to manage the medical and emotional aspects of a long-term illness.

Self-management support refers to education and other supports the health care team can provide over time to increase a patient's skills and confidence in managing their health challenges. This can include:

  • regular assessment of progress and challenges
  • patient goal-setting
  • support for problem-solving

Below are links to a strategy and worksheet the BC Renal network developed to support patient goal setting:

Goal-Setting

Goal-setting is a very important part of self-management. It is the process of gathering information for and setting of specific goals between health professionals and the patient for living well. The focus is on what matters to the patient.

The process involves a series of conversations:

  • to understand what matters to the patient
  • to set an overarching medical and/or non-medical goal
  • to break it down into shorter-term goals over time that have realistic and concrete action plans
  • to follow up and provide support if needed

This is relevant to patients at all stages of the kidney journey. It supports person- and family-centred care, and better patient experiences and outcomes. 

Over the past decade, we've asked for input from all kidney patients across BC through a patient experience survey called the Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care (PACIC). Each time we've done the survey, goal-setting was identified as a process that should be developed. This was the case across all types of kidney care and all renal programs.


To better understand goal-setting from different points of view and to identify common areas for improvement, BC Renal and the renal programs organized a series of focus groups and a provincial workshop on the topic. These were attended by kidney health professionals and patients and family members living with kidney disease across BC.


Patient Experience Survey Reports


Patient Goal-Setting in Kidney Care: Report on Focus Groups 




SOURCE: Self-Management ( )
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