Background & Aims : This Research was aimed to determine the efficacy of home care education on knowledge and performance of hemodialysis renal patients discharged from hospitals of Urmia University of Medical Sciences, 2010.

  Materials & Methods: This experimental study included 70 hemodialysis renal patients discharged from hospitals. They subjects were divided to two groups as case and control by randomized method (each group contains 35 patients). The independent variable was home care education and the dependent variable was knowledge and performance of patients. The data were collected using a questionnaire that was prepared in three parts. The patients were interviewed to determine their knowledge and performance in two stages. In the first stage, some demographic information, and knowledge and performance of both groups were gathered, and then home care education was performed plus offering some booklets. The second stage for the study and control group started after 30 day of the last self care education section. In other to analyzing the data, SPSS were used. Both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were applied.

  Results: The majority of the samples were female, married and were 25-44 years old. The average of acquiring knowledge was 26.9 before education which increased to 47.7 (P<0.05) for the study group. But in the control group was 30 in pretest and in posttest 30.1. The average of different performance was 44.4 before education which increased to 76.6 (P<0.05) for study group. But in the control group was 46.6 in pretest and in posttest was 45.5. There is a significant increase in both awareness and performance after the education.

  Conclusion: H ome care education of hemodialysis renal patients increases their knowledge and performance.

    Source: Urmia Med J 2011: 22(5): 492 ISSN: 1027-3727