To visit our general transition homepage click  here.

What is transition?

You may have heard your kidney team talk about 'transition' and be unsure what this means. This is sometimes referred to as developmentally appropriate care and helps ensure that our young adult patients receive medical care appropriate for their age. If you were diagnosed as a child you will have been cared for by a team in the Children's Hospital. As you get older and more independent you will find that it is important that you understand your condition, the impact it has on your life and the best ways to manage it to keep you well. Transition is this process of learning to manage your health condition and the transfer to adult services.

This process helps ensure that you, your parents/carers and your doctors and healthcare team can make sure that the move to adult services is as smooth as possible.

Transition in the kidney service

In the kidney service, which you might have also heard it called the renal or nephrology service, we start the transition process with you when you are around 13 years old. This is so you can be prepared for when you transfer to adult services, when you are about 18 years old.

Having a kidney condition means you need to think about how you live and what you do. The transition process is important in helping you to become independent and to help you understand your condition and how to manage it so that you can remain as healthy as possible. This may just involve meetings with your Consultant Nephrologist but can also include the wider team such as the Clinical Nurse Specialist or the Psychologist. We want to ensure we have given you the necessary information and input from the team so that you are supported to start managing your condition now and can be independent in doing so in the future.

What will happen?

You will get to meet with your Consultant. Depending on your medical condition you may also meet with the Clinical Nurse Specialist, Social Worker and Psychologist. A dietitian should be available in this clinic, so you can ask to see one during your visit.

We will talk about:

• What it is like living with a kidney condition and how this may affect you in the future
• Your kidney condition and how to maintain a healthy lifestyle (smoking, alcohol, drinking and eating).
• Current medications and why these are important
• Your plans for the future including sexual health and pregnancy
• Independence in seeing the Adult Nephrologist on your own and who to contact when you have any questions
• Information you may need to know about the adult hospital, including a tour of the hospital.

Once you have decided with your consultant when you would like to move to adult services, a transfer letter will be completed by your Consultant that will detail your medical information. You will meet the adult Nephrologist prior to transfer either in a young people's transition clinic or during your routine clinic appointment with your Paediatric Nephrologist.

Ready, Steady, Go

The kidney team use a nationally recognised program called 'Ready, Steady, Go' to support your transition process. This is now used in lots of different medical conditions, but was first developed for young people with kidney conditions! The Ready, Steady, Go website has examples of the type of information we will look at with you during transition, and also has videos on treatments and other resources.