Collaborating with other agencies is an important part of the work of the Renal Nutrition Group. It helps to get Renal Dietitians' voice in the wider picture, and enables your expertise and skills to be included in national work. Please contribute any opinions and ideas so that we can represent a concensus of our group.
UKKA links –requests for dietitians in their working groups
Angeline Taylor is attending the UKKA Sustainability Group. Katie Durman has been working with the UKKA Guidelines Working Group currently producing a guideline for the Management of Hypertension in Dialysis.
Normally, the commitment is to attend one virtual meeting per month and then feedback/feed-in where appropriate. If you have a special interest area then attending a subgroup is an excellent opportunity to promote dietitians, to ensure high quality diet care, and to make a difference to renal care nationally.
Under our UKKA membership section here, you can find out how to activate your UKKA membership, and a list of the sub groups and committees. If you are a member of a sub group or committee of the UKKA, or would like to join one, please let us know. [email protected]
Kidney Beam Nutrition module
Kidney Beam have asked us to contribute to a nutrition module. We are still awaiting details of what it may look like, but if you may be interested in the group, or have comments on its format, please get in touch. [email protected]
Kidney Kitchen and Kidney Care UK
Kidney Kitchen is well established with posters and booklets available. Follow the link to see more. The booklets are free to to all people with Kidney Disease. When current supplies run out, they are unable to support producing more of the large flip top format, but will produce a version with less recipes in a magazine style. These will continue to be available free to people with CKD, but KCUK now charge for bulk copies to kidney units for dietitians to distribute. More recipes are available on their site, many with videos of the food being cooked. Approving and videoing more recipes will be ongoing.
In Autumn 2022, their first recipe collection magazine, Eat Well Spend Less, was published to respond to the need for budget recipes. The second and third recipe magazines, Safe Weight Loss and South Asian Recipes are available free on the website for people with CKD. These magazines can be ordered in bulk for dietitians to distribute to patients, but there is a charge currently. More titles are planned throughout 2024.
KCUK have a rolling program to update their information for people with CKD, and we work with them on the diet related information. They have acheived PIF accreditation for their work. Additionally from time to time they ask us to contribute to website articles of interest, such as this recent one on phosphate additives.
Shelley Wills leads with all Kidney Kitchen and KCUK work.
National Kidney Federation
We have started working with the NKF, so that they can have up to date information available for patients. We have just produced a 'Healthy Eating for your Kidneys' booklet. Jo Pulman has lead on this project. Please get in touch if you would like to help with this work. [email protected]
Kidney Research UK
We approached KRUK earlier in the year, and they have asked us to help update their diet and recipe section. We are also sending a representative to a scoping meeting of multiprofessionals who work in the area of CKD in Diabetes, and people with Diabetes and CKD. The aim is to identify what the knowledge gaps are, and to prioritise areas for research. It will take place in early February 2024. If you work with Diabtes in CKD please let us know what you would like to see researched so that we can take a concensus.
PEN links
PEN, from time to time, ask for a UK reviewer for their CKD articles. This is an excellent CPD opportunity for anyone intending to submit abstracts or articles elsewhere in the future. Working as a reviewer will also help ensure high quality of the available information. We will announce the requests on the RNG webpage when we hear of them. But the application deadlines tend to be very tight, so you are welcome to let us know now of any speciality interests in readiness for future opportunities.
Renal version of ‘Carbs and Cals’
Shelley Wills is in discussion to restart this project. We are forming a working group and are considering how we might reflect the bio-availabilty of potassium, taking account of the fibre, and of phosphate to reflect on the absorption rates of different forms. Funding will also need to be found. Meanwhile, please let us know how this could be made as useful as possible a resource to you and our patients.
Links with other BDA Special Interest Groups
We have recently formed links with the Sustainability Group of the BDA, and PENG. We would also like to work more closely with the paediatric renal group PRING.
BDA work on Advancing Research Opportunities
The BDA is working with a consultancy to scope how they can advance research opportunities. We are finding out how we can support this work.