Behind the Needle: Healthcare Professionals' Perspectives on HD Needling

February 24, 2025 updated by: East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

A Qualitative Exploration Study of Healthcare Professionals' Perspectives in Haemodialysis Needling to Enhance Patients' Overall Experience

Haemodialysis is essential for patients with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), requiring consistent vascular access through arteriovenous fistulas or grafts. This involves frequent needling, a procedure that is painful and distressing for many patients, causing significant emotional and physical demands on healthcare professionals working in the dialysis units. In the UK, about 30,000 patients receive haemodialysis, involving over 300 needling procedures annually.

Healthcare professionals (Registered nurses and healthcare assistants) play a crucial role, with their expertise directly affecting patient outcomes. However, 60% of HCPs (healthcare professionals) report high job-related stress, particularly due to needling demands. Effective needling requires not only technical proficiency but also managing patient pain and anxiety. Strong staff-patient relationships, characterized by empathy and understanding, can enhance the needling experience. Challenges for dialysis unit staff includes the technical difficulty of needling and the emotional burden of patient care. Studies highlight the need for better training and support systems to help them cope with these demands.

Understanding healthcare professionals' perspectives can identify areas for improvement, inform training programs, and improve experiences in dialysis units. Research by Rahmah et al. (2018) and Duncanson (2023) emphasizes the importance of HCPs skills and the psychological toll on them, suggesting further exploration of this area is needed. The primary aim of this research is to examine HCPs perspectives on the needling experience in haemodialysis, aiming to identify improvement areas and inform targeted training programs to enhance patient experiences. The study will utilize a qualitative exploratory design with semi-structured interviews to gather in-depth insights from HCPs. Data will be collected from renal dialysis units at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, involving 12 to 16 registered nurses performing needling procedures. Thematic analysis will be used to analyse interview transcripts and identify key themes related to technical skills, communication barriers, and patient-related factors. The study will run for 10 months.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

16

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

  • Name: Eunice Ann Doctolero, Bachelor of Science in Nursing
  • Phone Number: +447737044516
  • Email: eunice.doctolero@nhs.net

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United Kingdom
    • Hertfordshire
      • Stevenage, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, SG1 4AB
        • Recruiting
        • East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust
        • Contact:
          • Eunice Doctolero

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

All data will be collected in the renal dialysis units of ENHT consisting of one main unit and four satellite units. The service provides in-centre haemodialysis to over 600 patients. Eligible nursing staff will be drawn from all service dialysis units.

The study aims to recruit between 12 to 16 HCPs (registered nurses and healthcare assistants) from dialysis units within East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust (ENHT). The sample size will be determined based on the concept of information power, ensuring that the data collected is sufficient to address the research questions effectively.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Participants must be registered nurses or Band 3 healthcare assistants who perform needling procedures in a haemodialysis unit.
  • Participants must be employed at the renal dialysis units of East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust (ENHT), including both the main unit and its satellite units.
  • Participants must be willing to participate in the study and share their experiences.
  • Participants must be able to speak English fluently to ensure they can communicate effectively, providing rich and comprehensive information.

Exclusion Criteria:

•Registered nurses or healthcare assistants who do not perform needling procedures in a haemodialysis unit will not be eligible to participate.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Healthcare professionals' (registered nurses and healthcare assistants) perspectives on the needling experience, with a focus on identifying areas for improvement and informing targeted training programs to enhance the overall patient experience.
Time Frame: March 2024
March 2024

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

October 30, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 31, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

May 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 30, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 24, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

March 25, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 25, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 24, 2025

Last Verified

October 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • RD2024-55

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Dialysis

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Uzbekistan

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Subscribe