Strategies for improving dialysis decision making.

It is important that every professional involved with guiding ESRD patients through the maze of dialysis decision making critically analyze his or her own behaviors, possible biases and thought processes influencing discussions with patients. Health care professionals need to continue to strive to improve their skills for assuring optimal assistance to their patients in making decisions about the best types of treatments for them. In this era of evermore challenging patients and technologies, the skills for informing patients and assisting them with effective decision making about issues such as medical management, dialysis, transplantation or treatment termination are vital for assuring quality care.