Ms Rhanee Lester - Nurse Leader & Director
Aim: Indigenous peer navigators aim to provide a more culturally appropriate and responsive model of care for, with and by First Nations renal patients.
Methods: Critical reflections and formal evaluations have been used to measure the outcomes of the NIKTT program ‘On Track To Transplant’ in Port Augusta, and the impact that peer navigators have had on Aboriginal patients kidney journeys.
Results: Peer navigators have been able to provide unique support and information for patients and their families, enabling them to make more fully informed decisions about their kidney care options and pathways, in the context of their lives, as well as their kidney disease.
Peer navigators have existing relationships and experiences with the health system, which provides them with specific insights into health care gaps, and the strategies needed to improve health care for Aboriginal people in the renal space.
Conclusion: This model has proven to work so well because of the lived experience of kidney disease and treatments by the peer navigator. They relate directly to the renal patients journey on a level that other health professionals cannot. Relationships between peer navigators and patients are based on trust, deep understanding, and a safe space for knowledge sharing. It has been said that navigators provide hope for a better quality of life