Embracing a new era of support
The revamped Psychonephrology.com is built around one core principle: making your experience as seamless and supportive as possible.
Are you experiencing a panic attack?
The world we live in today has not experienced a situation equivalent to this for over a hundred years. The last time a pandemic swept the world with full force, most of us were not even born, leaving us without clues on how to cope and recover from its emotional impacts. Our fast-paced lives suddenly came to [...]
Webinar: CKD and Mental Health
Diagnosis of any chronic illness like kidney disease can be a very turbulent time for any patient. The information and diagnosis may feel overwhelming and the patient might feel at a loss in connecting with his family, friends and even healthcare team. What is it like to live with a chronic kidney disease, how does [...]
In Conversation Series
Janet Wright with Dr. Gavril Hercz As a nephrologist and psychotherapist, I believe it is important to shed more light on the emotional impact of chronic illness, like polycystic kidney disease (PKD), on patients and families. Last year, during the “In Conversation Series”, we shared the 2018 Toronto PKD scientific conference video, in which Ms. [...]
Non-verbal messages : They are everywhere
Taking your cue from non-verbal communication Last week, during my visit to the dialysis unit, I came across a nurse who was displeased with a patient. On further conversation, she explained that she was disturbed by the manner expressed his dislike of her. This patient always wears T-shirts with strange quotes indirectly aimed at her. [...]
How to gain from your pain
An enormously distressing past event can have long-lasting effects that may only become recognizable many years later. The traumatic event can be one time, such as an accident, injury, loss of someone close, or it can be due to an ongoing cause, like illness. If you are feeling that you are on an emotional roller-coaster, [...]
The power of touch
The medical field is often best suited for individuals who can handle stressful situations with patience, compassion, as well as mental and physical stamina. There is a fine balance in maintaining and applying excellent communication technical skills. Doctors and nurses choose their profession with the hope of making patients feel better, both physically and emotionally. These efforts [...]
What are the causes, effects and the suggestions for Nursing Burnout
Nurses who provide emotional support to their patients, comforting and reassuring them in the depths of physical and psychological suffering, are providing not just their physical efforts but also their emotional efforts too.
In Conversation Series
In Conversation Series introduces a new medium in the exploration of the illness experience. We hope to have upcoming videotaped conversations with patients, caregivers and clinicians which we hope will convey these unique experiences from a variety of perspectives.
Post traumatic stress or Growth?
It is believed that every stressful or disturbing incident/ accident leaves a mark behind. The effects are not solely physical but also emotional and psychological. The medical term for this is “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”. These upsetting feelings and anxieties don’t go away, with symptoms that can be both physical (fatigue, racing heartbeat, aches, nightmares, [...]
Kidney Patients: Flex your social media muscles
Social media is increasingly disparaged, not least for its time-wasting capacities. In addition, it has fuelled a dramatic decrease in face-to-face communication, with more people forgetting the difference between the real and virtual world. However one cannot deny the vast positive change social media has bestowed, the ability to connect and communicate with people from [...]
Death and social media
In July of 2013, NPR Weekend Edition host Scott Simon began tweeting from the ICU of a Chicago hospital. For the next week, as he watched his mother’s condition worsen until her eventual passing, he shared everything from interactions with ICU nurses to his mother’s wisecracks and life lessons with his thousands of Twitter followers. [...]
Should moving towards the end of life begin a conversation?
Being Mortal Dying is an inevitable part of life. In the manner that we celebrate and discuss the process of birth, why we can’t discuss the process of death? Even for medical professionals, who have seen people going through the process of dying more than anyone else, they are not completely comfortable talking about it [...]
Are you donating a kidney?
Is your decision well informed? Living kidney donations save many lives every year. It can be best described as the donation of a kidney from a healthy person, made of his or her own free will. Donating an organ gives you a sense of accomplishment, as you were able to save another person’s life. You [...]
Can Family caregiving and self-compassion co-exist?
Society’s rules and expectations of behavior by family caregivers can seem quite onerous. A caregiver is anticipated to be a selfless individual who keeps the needs of the patient above everyone else’s, including his or her own needs. He/she looks after physical, medical, emotional, psychological, financial and legal needs. He is thought to be an [...]