Kaelyn Weitzman

Kaelyn Weitzman

Boardman Dialysis

Youngstown State University

September 11th, 2018

 Kaelyn Weitzman

Boardman Dialysis:

During my time at the Boardman Dialysis center, I learned a lot of useful information.

Before going in I did not have much knowledge about what dialysis was or how it worked. Many

of the patients at the dialysis center are in end stage kidney failure which means they have less

than 85-90 percent kidney function if any at all. This also means their glomerular filtration rate is

less than 15. When patients have this low of kidney function, doctors normally prescribe the

patient to get dialysis three times a week at a hospital, care center outside of a hospital or at

home depending on their health care needs.

While at the dialysis center I received a tour of the facility which included their water

room. I found this part of the tour to be especially informative. I learned that all the water that

comes into the facility needs to be filtered before it can go to the floor, for the patients to receive

through the pumps. In the water room I learned that our valleys water needs added water softener

to remove any calcium, magnesium or heavy metals and needs a carbon filtration to remove any

chlorines from the water. After all this happens the water should be close to its purest form and is

able to be pumped out to the floor and can come through any of the dialysis stations on the unit.

While following around my nurse I watched the process of a patient coming in for dialysis from

start to finish. When a patient first comes in they will get a baseline weight and vitals taken then

proceed to a seat in one of the stations on the unit. Patients typically will get their treatment on

their non-dominant arm. I learned that many patients come with numbing lotion on the site of

injection, wrapped in plastic wrap to help it set. A nurse then programs the pump for how much

they will receive like an IV machine. I learned that their treatment is a prescribed amount and

every patient gets a different amount. Once the machine is programed then the patient will get a

needle in their vein and one in their artery. The machine acts like the patient’s kidneys, so the
 Kaelyn Weitzman

blood runs through and removes any waste or extra chemicals or fluid from the blood.

Treatments I saw lasted anywhere between 3 hours to 4.5 hours. This type of dialysis is called

hemodialysis, meaning that an artificial kidney is removing the wastes from the blood. I saw two

different types of access points surgically made on patients for an easier stick. One patient had a

fistula surgically made, a second patient had weaker blood vessels so a plastic tube was used to

join and artery to a vein which is called a graft. As the treatments were going on the nurse was in

charge of taking the patients blood pressure every 15 minutes and comparing it to their baseline

vitals. If the patients blood pressures got too low the patient would need to stop their dialysis

treatment for the day. When finished the patient will weigh themselves again, this is an indicator

to the doctor if the dialysis is working or not.

Patients at the center were all very different. I saw patients who were older and some who

were only middle aged adults. I saw all types of backgrounds of people and I noticed all the

patients were treated differently in some way. No two people had the same prescription or the

same run time of dialysis. Only a few people at the center today were on a transplant list which I

found interesting, that means all other patients not on the kidney transplant list will potentially be

receiving dialysis until they are at the end stages of their lives.