According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), a nursing
scholarship plays a significant role in advancing science in nursing, improving clinical practice. affecting policy, and enhancing the best practices for educating nurses as clinicians, scholars, and educators (AACN, 2021). An understanding of how research is conducted, including the skills of critiquing research to determine its relevance to nursing is essential. For this discussion post, I have decided to focus on AACN scholarship essential 4.1g "Communicate scholarly findings" (AACN, 2021). In 2019, I worked as a hemodialysis technician in an outpatient center that located in a rural city. Most of my patients that I encountered were either homeless or poor; therefore, many of my patients experienced difficulties in maintaining proper fluid balance, adherence to treatment and dietary restrictions. My facility was noticing a significant increase in missed treatments and excess fluid gain in our patients; therefore, I chose to take on the role of fluidwise champion, where I worked in collaboration with other hemodialysis technicians, hemodialysis nurses, social workers, nephrologists, and registered dieticians to help increase treatment adherence among our patients. I was compelled to take on the role of fluidwise champion in my clinic because I knew that missed treatments negatively impact patient outcomes and I wanted to help my patients lead a healthier lifestyle. According to Al Salmi et al. (2018), missing one or more dialysis treatments in a four-month period is associated with a 68% increase in mortality rates for hemodialysis patients. Missed treatments can cause sudden cardiac death related to excessive burden on the cardiovascular system due to increased extracellular fluid volume and electrolyte level imbalances. Given my background in studying and obtaining my bachelor's degree of science in human physiology, I knew that using scientific literature to obtain information on how to help increase my facility's treatment adherence would aid me in formulating a plan of action. Therefore, I utilized the research skills I have gained while completing my initial degree to find evidence-based interventions that would help increase treatment adherence among my patients. After conducting research on how to improve treatment adherence in dialysis patients, I found that current evidence show suggests using self- management and educational interventions in adults with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) (Saunders et al., 2019). Self-management interventions aim to empower patients to become active members of the care planning process. According to the study conducted by Saunders et al. (2019) a weekly patient visits with a nurse practitioner that involves an individualized discussion regarding medication, and the importance of treatment adherence can help improve patient outcomes. Moreover, conducting a comprehensive medication reconciliation, and involving the pharmacist in the plan of care helped improve patient outcomes and increased patients' attendance to their dialysis sessions by 53.8%. I decided to share the information I found through my research with my team and discuss ways to implement those findings in our clinic. My team and I decided to conduct further research and came up with interventions that included extensive patient education