News

The Role of a Therapy Support Assistant (TSA)

In response to the needs of our customers within the NHS, Fresenius Medical Care has created a new role for the Home Dialysis Business Unit, called the Therapy Support Assistant (TSA). Moving forward, the TSA team will be a vital part of the Therapy Specialist Nurse (TSN) and Regional Business Management (RBM) teams.

As this is a new role to Fresenius Medical Care, there is room for the position to grow and develop to meet the needs of our patients and NHS in ensuring more people can access home therapies.

 

This new support will provide education and training services to new and current Fresenius Medical Care Home Dialysis patients and/or their caregivers, initially for Peritoneal Dialysis. Some of the team’s responsibilities include:

 

  • Training patients in the use of machines, either in the patient’s home, a hospital setting, NephroCare clinic, or any other location deemed suitable by the Lead Therapy Specialist Nurse (dependent on individual needs).
  • Supporting transitioning across the patient pathway in partnership with the local Trust and clinicians.
  • Proactively managing activations and deactivations of peritoneal dialysis patients, in collaboration with the Senior Therapy Specialist Nurse, Therapy Specialist Nurse and Regional Business Manager.
  • Building relationships with both the NephroCare unit managers and home therapy teams within their region.

The team of TSAs are all trained to Health and Social Care Level 3 or above and have subsequently received comprehensive training on Fresenius Medical Care PD products to ensure they are competent to deliver training effectively. To remain within their scope of practice they are not able to provide any training other than the usage of the Fresenius Medical Care PD products/devices. Patient-specific care (i.e., exit site care/dressings) will not be part of this support; however, their emotional and psychological support to the patient will be invaluable.

 

This new support role will be instrumental in allowing patients to successfully function independently, using the benefits of Home Dialysis to maintain optimal health and quality of life, and create a future worth living, every day.

 

People dialyse to live, not live to dialyse.

 

Creating a future worth living for patients. Worldwide. Every day.