Assessing the Impact of Telenursing on Self-Care in Hemodialysis Patients: A Clinical Trial Study

Hemodialysis (HD) treatment in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a long-term process, which cannot be sufficiently effective without the patient’s own involvement and self-care activities.

The aim of this study was to disclose the effect of telenursing on self-care behaviors of patients undergoing hemodialysis at Ali Ibn Abitalib Hospital, affiliated with Zahedan University of Medical Sciences in 2019.

In this clinical trial, 80 HD patients were chosen via convenience sampling and randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and an 18-item scale assessing HD patients’ self-care behaviors. The experimental group received a 12-week training program, which was held twice a week (each lasting 15 minutes). Follow-up was performed through phone calls during this period. On the other hand, the control group received only routine hospital instructions. The self-care questionnaire was completed before and 12 weeks after the intervention. The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS-22 using chi-square test, independent t-test, paired t-test, and ANCOVA. P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

A total of 80 subjects completed the study. Except for age, the two groups were not significantly different in terms of demographic variables. The mean score of self-care before the intervention was 24.40 ± 14.73 in the experimental group and 19.45 ± 14.11 in the control group. After the intervention, this score changed to 48.65 ± 9.19 in the experimental group and 20.40 ± 13.46 in the control group, suggesting a significant difference in self-care between the two groups.

Telenursing promotes self-care in HD patients. Thanks to the availability of telephone and the low cost of training for this method, health authorities/policymakers and nurses can deploy telenursing to cultivate self-care behaviors in these patients.