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Climate change is having quantifiable and increasingly negative impacts on human health and people living with kidney disease are uniquely vulnerable. In addition, the care of people with kidney diseases is a major contributor to climate change and waste generation, particularly care delivered for those on dialysis. While there are increasing calls from leading nephrology organizations to make nephrology care sustainable, we (International Society of Nephrology Emerging Leaders Program [ISN-ELP] cohort 2) conducted a scoping review and noted a dearth of data capturing the perspectives of healthcare professionals (HCPs). Thus, we aimed to obtain the input of HCPs on climate change and kidney care to identify and develop practice and policy implications.
We conducted a cross-sectional and multinational survey study of HCPs (doctors, nurses, trainees, social workers, pharmacists, technicians, managers, and other staff) involved in the care of patients with kidney diseases, including those on dialysis or those with a transplant. We used the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) framework to design our questions. The survey was administered electronically in English using the Survey Monkey platform from 09-10, 2023.
We report that the majority of HCPs in nephrology believe in climate change and are worried about it, yet only a fraction are involved in initiatives to combat climate change effects on kidney health or initiatives in sustainable nephrology. Over half of the participants in our survey did not feel knowledgeable on these subjects. Informed by this survey, the ISN-ELP cohort 2 is now designing a toolkit and developing an educational curriculum, including webinars and online modules, to increase awareness and knowledge on sustainable care in nephrology.