Intervening on health literacy by knowledge translation processes in kidney transplantation: A feasibility study

Background: Patients awaiting kidney transplantation need to be prepared ahead of the upcoming transplantation by developing targeted pre- and post-transplant knowledge. On this background, we designed a new health literacy intervention, including a film and a counselling session, based on motivational interviewing for dialysis patients provided by dialysis nurses.

Aim: To explore patients' and nurses' experiences of the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention, focusing on the patient as a prepared knowledge actor.

Design: An explorative qualitative study.

Participants and methods: Data included in-depth interviews with nine patients and three nurses who participated in the intervention. The interviews were audiotaped and analysed following Kvale and Brinkmann's method for thematic data analysis.

Findings: Three main themes were identified: a different kind of health intervention stimulating new insight; a challenging kind of health conversation and changed relationships and increased security.

Conclusions: Both the patients and the nurses had an overall positive attitude toward the intervention, providing a kind of dialogue to prepare dialysis patients going through kidney transplantation. The nurses found the MI methodology to be challenging. When introducing a comprehensive communication method like MI, potential training and supervision needs for the nurses must be addressed.