Transplant education is provided early and over time starting in the Kidney Care Clinic to ensure your patient has a clear understanding of the benefits associated with living donor kidney transplant (LDKT) and to help them decide if this is the best treatment option for your patient in collaboration with the kidney care team.

Transplant Education Resources:

• Transplant Education Patient resource package
• Step 1: I am learning about Living Donor Kidney Transplant
  
• Introduction to Kidney Transplant
• Treatments for Kidney Failure Education (Transplant)
• Self-directed multimedia presentation
• Print copies
• The Kidney Transplant Process: A step by step guide for kidney transplant recipients
  
• Kidney Foundation of Canada (KFOC): Living with Kidney failure Chapter 4 Transplant
• Transplant Referral Order Template:
• Standard Referral Orders for Kidney Transplant Assessment
  
• Standard Referral Orders for Kidney Transplant Assessment (Word Version)
  
• To initiate transplant referral if your patient decides to proceed
• Communication to Primary Care:
• An Information Sheet for Primary Care Providers
  
• To communicate to your patient’s primary care provider that their patient has expressed interest in pursuing a living donor kidney transplant
  

The kidney care team will start to talk to the patient about living donor outreach and the best ways to communicate their story to friends, family, and community. The team will provide the patient with the support and resources needed along the way to help overcome any challenges and answer any questions about how to reach out to potential donors. The kidney care team will help develop a living donor outreach program, but it is the patient's responsibility to develop the plan and do the outreach to potential living donors. Potential donors need to come forward voluntarily without feeling pressure or coercion especially from anyone involved in the patient's kidney care.

Living Donor Resources:

• Living Donor Outreach Staff resource package
• Staff Guide: Facilitating Donor Outreach Conversations with Patients
  
• Conversations with Patients About Donor Outreach
  
• Tips on how to help a patient through the living donor outreach process
• Living Donor Outreach Patient resource package
• Step 3: I am in the process of looking for a living donor
  
• Step 4: I may have identified a potential donor
  
• Finding a Donor and talking about Kidney Donation (Patient teaching tool)
• Finding a Donor Getting the word out: A step by step guide for reaching out to potential donors
  
• Sample Donor Outreach Letters
  
• Traditional Chinese
  
• Punjabi
  

• Potential Living Donor resource package
• What is living kidney donation and can I be a kidney donor?
• Living Organ Donation: Let's Learn More
• Living Kidney Donor Program: A step by step process
• The Living Donor Kidney Transplant Process: A step by step guide for living kidney donors
• Top 6 questions about living donor kidney transplant
• Living Kidney Donor Testimonials:
• Tanya and Todd
• Eileen
  
• Charles and Wayne
  
• Living donor mentor program
• Living Organ Donor Expense Reimbursement Program (LODERP)

Once the patient has received education, the patient is referred to the local transplant clinic or kidney care clinic. Screening is done as part of the referral process to the provincial transplant centre (Vancouver General Hospital and St. Paul's Hospital). Some of this screening includes information about previous blood transfusions, prior pregnancies, prior transplants, and kidney biopsies

Patient Resources:

• Step 2: I Would Like to Start the Testing Process for a Kidney Transplant
  

Testing includes blood tests such as those that are standard during regular health checks and more specifically those to rule out sexually transmitted infections (STIs), diagnostic tests such as chest x-ray, cardiac testing and various other tests such as tuberculosis, fecal test for colon cancer screening, etc. Some tests will take more time than others, but it is an important step towards ensuring your patient is suitable to receive a living donor kidney transplant.

The local transplant clinic and kidney care clinic work together to ensure that all the testing required is completed and sent to Vancouver General Hospital or St. Paul's Hospital.  The patient's family doctor may be contacted to provide important health information as well.

Once testing is complete and the referral is sent to Vancouver General Hospital or St. Paul's Hospital, the priority in which the patient will be seen and assessed depends on different factors. For example, your patient will be assessed more quickly if they have identified a living donor and the living donor has registered as a possible donor. People with registered living donors are prioritized over those who do not have a living donor registered.  People with lower GFR may get prioritized to be seen sooner as well.

It is important to continue to have living donor outreach discussions with your patient and addressing any challenges that may come up along the way.

Living Donor Resources:

• Living Donor Outreach Staff resource package
• Staff Guide: Facilitating Donor Outreach Conversations with Patients
  
• Conversations with Patients About Donor Outreach
• Tips on how to help a patient through the living donor outreach process
  

Vancouver General Hospital or St. Paul's Hospital will review testing results that were completed at the local clinic.  The results will help them decide whether your patient is suitable to proceed with the next step on the journey towards living donor kidney transplant. 

• If the transplant team decides your patient is suitable to proceed, they will start the assessment process.  This may include more testing and a visit will be scheduled with the transplant team
• If they decide your patient cannot proceed, they will be contacted by their nephrologist or kidney care team.  The team will explain to the patient the reasons why and discuss other treatment options

Vancouver General Hospital or St. Paul's Hospital will schedule an assessment visit with your patient to help determine whether they are suitable for transplant based on all of the testing that was completed. The initial assessment is done by the transplant surgeon (urologist), transplant physician (nephrologist) and transplant nurse and/or social worker. More tests may be requested based on the assessment with the transplant team.

It is important to continue to have living donor outreach discussions with your patient and addressing any challenges that may come up along the way.

Patient Resources:

• Step 5: I have been referred to Vancouver General Hospital or St. Paul's Hospital for assessment
  

• Living Donor Outreach Staff resource package
• Staff Guide: Facilitating Donor Outreach Conversations with Patients
  
• Conversations with Patients About Donor Outreach
  
• Tips on how to help a patient through the living donor outreach process
  

The transplant team will determine if your patient is suitable for a living donor kidney transplant once you have been assessed.  To help determine whether they are suitable, there may be some more testing that is required depending on your patient's individual circumstances. 

• If your patient is not suitable, the transplant team will contact them and provide the reasons why they are not able to proceed. 
• If your patient is suitable, the next step is to start preparing them for the transplant procedure.

The provincial transplant donor team will communicate with the recipient's transplant team to determine the timing of the transplant procedure based on their level of kidney function and whether a donor will be ready.

It is important to continue to have living donor outreach discussions with your patient and addressing any challenges that may come up along the way.

Patient Resources:

• Step 6: I am suitable for a living donor kidney transplant
  

• Living Donor Outreach Staff resource package
• Staff Guide: Facilitating Donor Outreach Conversations with Patients
  
• Conversations with Patients About Donor Outreach
  
• Tips on how to help a patient through the living donor outreach process