Purpose

The Missouri Kidney Program is proud to sponsor the Patient Education Program (PEP), an educational program, for patients, their families, and friends. Classes are offered in or near your community. This program is designed to help you and those who care about you learn more about kidney disease, options for treatment, and how to live well with kidney disease.

Classes were designed for those:
• Who have not yet started treatment for kidney failure
• Who are new to treatment
• Who are considering changing from one type of treatment to another
• Who want to know more

Topics

• Introduction to Kidney Disease and Treatment
Learning about kidneys to keep them working longer
• Diet and Kidney Disease
Eating healthy at any stage of kidney disease and with any treatment
• Finances and Coping with Kidney Disease
Paying for care and living a good life with kidney disease
• Kidney Transplantation
Getting and keeping a new kidney
• Peritoneal Dialysis
Removing waste from the blood at home with no needles
• Hemodialysis
Removing wastes from the blood in a clinic or learning to do it at home

General Information

Experienced nurses, dietitians, and social workers share clinical information. People with kidney failure share their experience as part of the discussions on options.

Recent Graduates’ Comments

“This was a great help to me. I am more informed today than yesterday.”

“Thanks for communicating with us as though we had sense.”

“Very informative and enlightening – I wish I had attended one of these programs before. Very good presentation by all moderators. Thank you.”

“I have been hypertensive for 30 years and diabetic for 10 – kidney disease is most likely in my future – but now – maybe not for a long time.”

“I found it particularly helpful to be able to hear from patients using the different types of dialysis options.”