CPPE has joined forces with the Think Kidneys programme to highlight the risks of acute kidney injury.

The focus of CPPE’s autumn learning campaign is on raising awareness of acute kidney injury and promoting the simple things that pharmacy professionals in all sectors can do to help their patients prevent this.

Up to 100,000 deaths a year are associated with acute kidney injury, of which up to 33 per cent could be avoided. One in five people admitted to hospital as an emergency has acute kidney injury.

Acute kidney injury is not a disease itself but the result of underlying pathology and a marker of an ‘unwell’ patient. Since it is insidious in nature, healthcare professionals need to be aware and looking out for it in order to spot it.

Over 60 per cent of cases of acute kidney injury start in the community. How many have you noticed in your practice and what role did you play, or could you have played, in helping to prevent them?

Campaign challenges

The campaign, which runs until the end of November, is based on a number of challenges:

1. Watch the ‘Think kidney – talk kidney’ animation

CPPE has developed two animations showing how simple interventions from the pharmacy team can help prevent people developing acute kidney injury. Go to cppe.ac.uk/aki and choose ‘Community practice’.

2. Test your knowledge

Issue 96 of the CPPE’s e-challenge runs from October 28 to November 10. Take five minutes to complete this quiz.

3. Learn and engage

Your CPPE distance learning programme, Acute kidney injury, should be with you by early November. Work through it and start to plan your practice changes. CPPE is hosting a Twitter chat with @WePharmacists using the hashtags #thinkkidneys and #CPPEAKI – so do join in.

4. Discuss with your team

Share and discuss this article and the CPPE articles in Training Matters with your team to get them thinking about what they can do to help people avoid acute kidney injury.

5. Planning a change

Listen to CPPE’s podcast at cppe.ac.uk/aki of a pharmacist whose mother developed acute kidney injury. Discuss with your team your key messages and develop a poster to share these more widely.

6. Make your pledge

Together with the Think Kidneys programme team, CPPE is inviting you to make a pledge to do one thing that will make a difference to people at risk of developing acute kidney injury. There are some great ideas in section 4 of the CPPE Acute kidney injury distance learning programme. Visit the Think Kidneys website to make your pledge here.