Successful daily home hemodialysis patient‐care partner dyads: Benefits outweigh burdens

Understanding and communicating the benefits vs. burdens of short daily home hemodialysis (SDHD) is presumed to be important to the success of recruiting patients and care partners and preventing dropout. We conducted an in‐depth qualitative study of 13 patient and care partner couples (dyads) who completed at least 6 months of SDHD after at least 6 months of in‐center hemodialysis to inform strategies for screening, training, and support to improve SDHD retention. In this exploratory descriptive study, all patients reported better well‐being since starting SDHD. Considering the relationship and psychosocial factors, 4 profiles for dyadic coping emerged: (1) Thriving (n=5)—patients and care partners were flourishing; (2) Surviving (n=4)—strong couples were adjusting to challenges; (3) Martyrdom (n=3)—1 partner defers his/her needs and resentments to make SDHD work; and (4) Seeking another option (n=1)—patient unwilling to burden an anxious partner. Overall, patients who did more SDHD self‐care, particularly self‐cannulation, were more likely to thrive, regardless of dyad profile, and strong relationships tended to become stronger when faced with the challenge of SDHD. Training that was unhurried and valued care partners as well as patients, used a mix of learning strategies, and provided a home visit for the first home treatment was associated with Thriving dyads; training that was directive, inflexible, and focused on the patient at the expense of the partner was not. We recommend that centers screen dyads for relationship quality and integrate couple relationship education into SDHD training as required. Further, we recommend a large‐scale, multi‐center prospective study to test this model of how couple relationship and coping styles affect clinical outcomes and rates of continuation with SDHD.